PHILOSOPHIA 


ULTIMA, 


CHAKLES    WOODRUFF    SHIELDS. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

J.    B.    LIFPINCOTT    k    CO. 
186!. 


'  «  But  as  these  great  things  are  not  at  our  disposal,  we  here,  at  the 

I  entrance  of  our  work,  with  the  utmost  fervency  and  humility,  put 

forth  our  prayers  to  God,  that  remembering  the  miseries  of  man- 
kind and  the  pilgrimage  of  this  life,  where  we  pass  but  few  days 
and  sorrowful,  he  would  vouchsafe  through  our  hands,  and  the 
hands  of  others,  to  whom  he  has  given  the  like  mind,  to  relieve  the 
human  race  by  a  new  act  of  his  bounty.  We  likewise  beseech  him, 
that  what  is  human  may  not  clash  with  what  is  divine ;  and  that 
when  the  ways  of  the  senses  are  opened,  and  a  greater  natural 
light  set  up  in  the  mind,  nothing  of  incredulity  and  blindness 
towards  divine  mysteries  may  arise;  but  rather  that  the  under- 
standing, now  cleared  up,  and  purged  of  all  vanity  and  superstition, 
may  remain  entirely  subject  to  the  divine  oracles,  and  yield  to 
faith  the  things  that  are  faith's:  and  lastly,  that  expelling  the 
poisonous  knowledge  infused  by  the  serpent,  which  puffs  up  and 
swells  the  human  mind,  we  may  neither  be  wise  above  measure  nor 
go  beyond  the  bounds  of  sobriety,  but  pursue  the  truth  in  char- 
ity." 

IxsT.\UKATio  Magna. 


.^^^^^ri^'x 


I.    Scieiitia   Scieiitiarum. 
II.    A.T3   Scieiitianana. 
III.    Scientia   Artiviin. 


"In  Theology,"  said  Kepler,  "Ave  l^alance  author- 
ities; in  Philosophy  we  weigh  reasons.  A  holy  man 
was  Lactantius,  who  denied  that  the  earth  was 
round;  a  holy  man  was  Augustine,  who  granted  the 
rotundity  but  denied  the  antipodes;  a  holy  thing  to 
me  is  the  Inquisition,  which  allows  the  smallness  of 
the  earth,  but  denies  its  motion;  but  more  holy  to 
me  is  truth;  and  hence  I  prove  by  philosophy  that 
the  earth  is  round  and  inhabited  on  every  side,  of 
small  size,  and  in  motion  among  the  stars, — and  this 
I  do  with  no  disrespect  to  the  Doctors." 

If  theologians,  as  well  as  philosophers,  may  now 
enjoy  the  quaint  irony  and  earnestness  of  these 
words,  it  is  because  even  a  defeated  party  can  afford 
to  smile  at  absurdities  which  they  have  outgrown. 
We  sometimes  amuse  ourselves  with  the  errors  of  a 
former  age  by  turning  them  into  a  foil  to  modern 
wisdom.  But  they  may  serve  a  graver  purpc^se. 
History,  while  it  cheers  us  with  evidences  of  prog- 

2  (5) 


6  PHILOSOPHIA   ULTIMA. 

ress,  likewise  warns  us  tliat  we  are  still  fallible, 
and  possibly  as  to  this  ^ery  class  of  questions  more 
than  any  other. 

How  far  the  nineteenth  century  is  really  in 
advance  of  the  seventeenth,  as  respects  the  great 
problem  of  a  logical  affiliation  of  human  science  and 
divine  revelation,  and  consequent  harmony  of  civili- 
zation and  Christianity,  may  be  seriously  argued. 
Since  the  age  of  Kepler  there  have  indeed  been 
changes  for  the  better.  Astronomy  no  longer  dis- 
turbs the  current  interpretation  of  scripture;  theo- 
logy has  grown  more  tolerant  of  scientific  opinion; 
and  the  memorable  lessons  of  the  controversy  are 
not  yet  sj)ent  in  other  fields  of  inquiry.  But  what 
progress  has  been  made  toward  a  settlement  of  the 
general  question  involved  in  such  conflicts?  How 
much  nearer  are  we  to  a  philosophy  or  fixed  doctrine 
of  the  reciprocal  relations  of  reason  and  revelation, 
of  science  and  theology?  What  broad  surveys  have 
we  of  their  distinct  provinces  and  common  ground? 
What  clear  discriminations  of  their  respective  me- 
thods and  laws,  and  of  their  logical  and  historical 
interaction?  And  what  systematic  attempts  at  har- 
monizing and  organizing  the  existing  bodies  of  knowl- 
edge which  they  have  developed?  Must  not  every 
enlightened  observer  admit  that  the  field  of  contro- 
versy has  been  widening  rather  than  contracting; 
that  the  state  of  parties  throughout  that  field  grows 
more  involved  and  serious;  and  that  the  tenor  of  the 


PIIILOSOPIIIA   ULTIMA.  7 

strife  is  already  critical?  And  is  it  to  be  maintained, 
that  this  is  the  normal  or  final  relationship  of  the  two 
interests?  Are  they  of  necessity  and  always  mutu- 
ally indifferent,  antagonistic,  and  exterminating?  Or, 
do  they  admit  of  gradual  reunion,  coincidence,  and 
harmony  ? 

These  are  questions  which  begin  to  force  them- 
selves upon  thoughtful  minds.  They  not  only  invite, 
but  require  and  deserve  consideration.  Their  very 
difficulty  and  delicacy  are  overborne  by  their  urgency. 

Viewed  in  one  light,  they  are  indeed  suited  to 
daunt  the  most  reckless  speculation.  What  mortal 
wisdom  can  reap  two  such  vast  fields  of  knowl- 
edge, or  bind  into  sheaves  such  varied  harvests  of 
truth!  How  jealous  is  reason  of  faith,  and  faith  of 
reason!  And  how  warily  must  either  venture  with- 
in the  bounds  of  the  other!  To  link  the  jarring 
sciences,  material  and  moral,  rational  and  reveak^d, 
into  one  series,  by  one  method,  and  to  one  aim ;  to 
organize  a  true  hierarchy  in  this  present  anarchy  of 
knowledge,  divine  and  human, — this  is  not  tlie  task 
of  any  single  mind  or  age;  and  wQve  it  in  itself  a 
mere  wordy  pastime  of  philosophers,  all  earnest  souls 
would  but  shrink  from  it  in  proportion  as  they  com- 
prehend it. 

Viewed  in  another  light,  however,  such  questions 
only  nerve  w  hile  they  tempt  our  curiosity.  What  a 
mass  of  human  interests  hangs  upon  their  issue! 
What  a  medley  of  human  opinions  is  involved    in 


8  PHILOSOPHIA    ULTIMA. 

their  solution!  How  all  human  duty  and  destiny 
concentrate  in  the  problem  of  reconciling  the  finite 
with  the  Infinite  reason !  and  how  all  human  history 
points  to  the  goal  where  science  returns  into  Omni- 
science, the  earth  becomes  subject  to  man,  and  man 
to  God!  The  unity  of  nature  and  scripture,  the  har- 
mony of  theory  and  creed,  the  marriage  of  reason  and 
faith,  the  perfection  of  knowledge,  the  triumph  of  art, 
the  regeneration  of  society, — these,  in  their  order,  are 
linked  ideals  of  prophecy  and  philosophy,  which  at 
once  overawe  and  charm  us  into  an  enthusiasm  that 
must  grow  in  fervor  as  it  grows  in  humility  and 
caution. 

History  is  full  of  analogies  to  support  the  idea  that 
great  social  movements  do  not  burst  upon  the  world 
as  mere  happy  accidents,  or  as  the  achievements  of 
distinguished  leaders,  but  grow  logically  out  of  some 
existing  exigency^  known  and  felt  by  the  few  long 
before  it  is  seen  by  the  many.  The  modern  reforma- 
tions in  religion,  science,  and  politics  which  we  asso- 
ciate with  such  names  as  Luther,  Bacon,  and  Wash- 
ington, and  hail  as  the  wonders  of  our  era,  may  now 
be  traced  back  to  causes  secretly  working  for  centuries 
before,  and  be  linked  in  a  series  of  events  binding  the 
whole  past  to  the  present,  and  the  present  to  the 
future.  For  thus  does  Providence  rule  the  world  in 
order  and  reason. 

An  inquiry  into  the  historical  origin  of  the  existing 
schism  between  science  and  revelation,  midit  confirm 


PIIILOSOPHIA    ULTIMA.  9 

this  principle.  Having  begun  in  a  legitimate  revolt 
of  reason  from  authority,  that  schism  has  grown  up 
into  one  of  the  great  diseases  or  abuses  of  Protestant- 
ism, calling  for  another  reformation,  to  be  as  far  in 
advance,  it  may  be,  of  the  incidental  evils  of  Protest- 
antism, as  Protestantism  itself  is  in  advance  of  the 
evils  of  Catholicism;  a  reformation  which  may  cure 
the  sectarianism  and  infidelity  of  the  age,  not  by  a 
recoil  to  the  dead  catholicity  of  the  past,  but  by  the 
growth  of  that  new  catholicity  of  the  future,  which 
shall  rest  upon  the  demonstrated  harmony  of  all 
truth,  and  subsist  in  a  spontaneous  and  universal  con- 
currence; and  a  reformation,  too,  which  shall  be  none 
the  less  real  and  thorough  because  gradual  and  peace- 
ful in  its  progress.  No  more  instructive  chapter  in 
the  history  of  philosophy  could  be  written,  than  that 
which  should  review  the  collisions  of  the  theological 
and  scientific  classes  during  the  past  three  centuries, 
and  trace  the  rise  of  that  anarchy  of  the  sciences  and 
consequent  anarchy  of  opinions,  institutions,  and  in- 
terests which  has  become  the  characteristic  peril  of 
modern  civilization. 

The  object  of  this  essay,  however,  is  simply  a  survey 
of  the  present  state  of  opinion  upon  the  question,  with 
the  view  of  showing  that  the  opposition,  so  long  ex- 
isting between  these  two  modes  of  knowledge,  has 
reached  a  critical  stage,  or  amounts  to  a  grave  exi- 
gency; and  that  philosophic  and  educational  reforms 
are  already  imminent  and  practicable. 


10  ririLosoriiiA  ultima. 

"It  is  a  pleasure,"  saj's  a  master  of  ancient,  as 
quoted  l^v  tlie  master  of  modern  philosophy,  "to 
stand  on  the  shore  and  to  see  ships  tossed  upon  the 
sea;  a  pleasure  to  stand  in  the  window  of  a  castle 
and  to  see  a  battle,  and  the  adventures  thereof  below; 
but  no  pleasure  is  comparable  to  the  standing  on  the 
vantage-ground  of  truth,  (a  hill  not  to  be  commanded, 
and  where  the  air  is  always  clear  and  serene,)  and  to 
see  the  errors,  and  wanderings,  and  mists,  and  tem- 
pests in  the  vale  below;  so  always,  that  this  prospect 
be  with  pity  and  not  with  swelling  or  pride."  But, 
when  the  survey  is  to  be  for  use  rather  than  pleasure, 
even  the  bird's-eye  view  of  a  battle-field,  bounded 
only  by  the  horizon  of  thought,  covered  all  over  with 
the  smoke  of  controversy,  and  whereon  not  kings  or 
peoples  alone,  but  great  ideas  are  striving  for  the 
mastery,  with  lasting  interests  of  humanity  staked 
upon  the  issue, — how  it  behooves  us  to  lay  aside  all 
prejudice  as  well  as  pride,  and,  like  Moses  at  Ajalon, 
pray  only  that  the  sun  may  not  go  down  upon  the 
world  till  Truth  shall  come  off  victor. 

Though  there  may  be  nothing  like  extended  organ- 
ization, or  avowed  concert  underneath  the  vast  medley 
of  modern  philosophical  opinion,  yet  throughout  the 
educated  mind  of  the  age,  that  mind  which  garners 
the  past  and  forecasts  the  future,  there  has  been  a 
steady,  silent  growth  of  feelings  and  beliefs,  which,  at 
least,  admit  of  being  described,  compared,  and  esti- 
mated.    We  see  them  reflected  and  contrasted  in  the 


PniLOSOPIIIA    ULTIMA.  11 

periodical  literature  of  the  day  so  clearly,  that  the 
whole  community  of  the  learned,  as  they  stand  af- 
fected to  the  question,  may  be  divided  into  classes 
or  parties,  none  the  less  real  because  never  visibly 
arrayed  or  organized. 

If,  in  here  grouping  and  showing  them  together  in 
a  body,  we  do  not  cite  well-known  writers  and  sys- 
tems, let  this  be  because  it  would  be  as  needless  as 
difficult  in  a  plan  designed  to  reflect  not  merely  all 
actual,  but  all  possible  shades  of  opinion;  and  be- 
cause, too,  it  may  be  well  that  we  should  not  bewilder 
the  view  with  any  mere  personalities,  but  remember 
only,  as  we  gaze  into  the  vast  spectrum  of  human 
conceit  and  error,  that  it  is  the  one  ray  of  truth  there 
thrown  into  such  brilliant  distortion,  and  that  not 
less  our  own  little  foible  than  another's,  must  first  be 
purged  to  form  the  perfect  prism  of  knowledge. 

Of  the  classes  to  be  reviewed,  the  two  largest  and 
most  marked,  are  those  who  are  averse  and  those 
who  are  inapt  to  this  great  work  of  harmonizing  the 
knowledge  of  man  with  the  knowledge  of  God. 

If  we  except  the  few  minds  inclined  by  peculiar 
taste  to  the  inquiry,  it  would  doubtless  be  found  that 
large  bodies  of  scholars  and  thinkers  are  more  or  less 
averse  to  its  prosecution.  Through  some  educational 
or  professional  bias,  or  without  any  reflection,  they 
acquiesce  in  the  present  anomalous  relations  of  reason 
and  revelation  as  necessary,  unimportant,  or  even 
desirable.     They  may  be  graded,  according  to  their 


12  PIIILOSOPHIA    ULTIMA. 

decrees  of  aversion,  into  extremists  and  indifferent- 
ists,  and  paired  in  each  class,  according  to  their  point 
of  departure,  into  theologians  and  philosophers. 

To  the  extremists  belong  those  theologians  and 
philosophers  who  depart  into  the  extremes  of  dog- 
matism and  rationalism,  or  who  respectively  dog- 
matize within  the  province  of  reason,  or  rationalize 
within  the  province  of  revelation.  They  are  the 
poles  apart  upon  every  question  into  wdiich  scripture 
and  science  can  enter.  They  insist  each  against  the 
other  upon  exclusive  jurisdiction  throughout  the  en- 
tire domain  of  truth;  or,  if  they  admit  common 
ground,  it  is  viewed  as  a  battle-field,  in  which  there 
can  be  neither  peace  nor  truce,  but  only  deadly  war- 
fare, till  one  or  the  other  is  exterminated. 

The  theologian  of  this  class  would  invade  the 
whole  province  of  reason.  The  scriptures  he  takes 
as  a  revelation,  not  merely  in  respect  to  strictly  theo- 
logical questions,  but  also  in  respect  to  such  purely 
scientific  questions  as  the  construction  of  the  material 
universe,  the  formation  and  antiquity  of  the  earth, 
and  the  physical  and  psychical  organization  of  human 
nature.  Their  allusions,  in  popular  language,  to  such 
sul)jects,  are  wrought  by  him  into  a  kind  of  scientific 
creed,  wdiich  he  is  ready  to  maintain  in  defiance  of 
all  opposing  theories,  and  to  bind  upon  the  conscience 
as  pure  dogma  or  mystery  of  faith;  and  even  when 
his  exegesis  comes  in  collision  with  actual  discoveries 
of  fact,  rather   than   change   it,  he  w^ill   suppose  a 


PIITLOSOPniA    ULTIMA.  13 

miracle  where  one  would  have  been  as  useless  as  im- 
probable. Theology  is  for  him  a  stern  mistress, 
rather  than  the  adored  queen  of  the  sciences,  and 
holds  them  in  abject  pupilage  at  her  feet. 

Examples  of  this  kind  of  ultraist  have  never  been 
wanting.  He  has  appeared  at  the  dawn  of  every 
science,  ready  to  decide  its  questions  by  the  weight 
of  ecclesiastical  or  scriptural  authority,  and  to  oppose 
its  discoveries  by  some  physical  or  metaphysical  doc- 
trine drawn  from  the  Bible.  When  the  heliocentric 
theory  was  first  broached,  he  thought  it  not  only  in 
conflict  with  the  letter  of  inspiration,  but  with  a  dif- 
ferent astronomy  which  he  found  in  scripture,  and 
which  permitted  him  to  admire  the  wisdom  and 
goodness  of  Jehovah  in  immovably  fixing  the  earth's 
plane  and  cope,  and  causing  the  heavenly  luminaries 
to  rise  and  set  over  the  scene  of  human  happiness. 
In  our  day,  he  is  dogmatizing  in  a  similar  manner 
within  the  province  of  geology.  The  whole  problem 
of  ethnology  he  has  settled  in  advance.  And  in 
psychology,  sociology,  and  theology,  he  does  not  even 
admit  any  action  of  reason,  but  denounces  it  as  the 
foe  or  rival  of  revelation. 

At  the  opposite  extreme  is  the  philosopher  of  the 
same  class.  He  would  invade  the  whole  province  of 
revelation.  The  natural  reason  he  deems  competent 
to  deal  not  only  with  philosophical  problems,  but  even 
with  the  high  theological  problems  of  creation,  incar- 
nation, and  judgment,  of  duty,  destiny,  and  eternity. 


14  PIIILOSOPIIIA    ULTIMA. 

By  means  of  its  crude  surmises  he  frames  a  kind  of 
theological  tlieory  Avhich  he  weighs  against  all  inspired 
teaching,  and  claims  to  supj^ort  with  a  purely  rational 
demonstration;  and  when  any  of  his  researches  or 
speculations  appear  inconsistent  with  received  inter- 
pretation of  scripture,  he  is  in  haste  not  merely  to 
unsettle  that  interpretation,  but  to  impugn  the  very 
fact  of  inspiration,  together  with  the  entire  doctrinal 
system  it  upholds.  Science  becomes  in  his  hands  a 
crazed  parricide,  rather  than  the  sane  daughter  of 
theology,  and  with  every  new  discovery  aims  a 
deadly  bloAv  at  the  very  breasts  which  nurtured 
her. 

If  it  be  maintained  that  the  former  species  of 
ultraist  is  on  the  decline,  it  must  be  granted  that 
this  latter  is  on  the  increase.  He  has  been  embold- 
ened by  the  marvels  of  modern  research  and  the 
tolerance  of  the  age  to  advance  from  the  portal  to 
the  very  shrine  of  revealed  truth.  One  doctrine  after 
another  he  is  assailing  with  scientific  theories,  and 
undermining  by  speculative  processes.  The  chris- 
tology  of  scripture  he  thinks  to  have  made  obsolete 
by  the  discovery,  that  our  earth,  once  supposed  to  be 
the  scene  of  a  divine  incarnation  and  center  of  the 
universe,  is  but  an  insignificant  planet  lost  among 
myriads  of  suns.  Against  its  cosmogony,  he  arrays 
the  nebular  hypothesis  and  the  geologic  ages.  He 
menaces  its  anthropology  with  the  theory  of  indigen- 
ous races.     And  as  to  its  soterology,  ecclesiology,  and 


riTiLosopiiiA  ULTnrA.  15 

eschatology,  he  does  not  even  admit  the  fact  or  need 
of  revelation,  but  dreams  of  another  gospel,  church, 
and  millennium,  which  are  to  be  the  pure  product  of 
reason. 

Thus  the  extremists,  on  both  sides,  reach  a  like 
degree  of  divergence  and  opposition,  and  in  their  aims 
or  tendencies  are  alike  destructive.  Were  either  to 
prevail  against  the  other,  an  original  power  of  human 
nature  would  be  annulled,  and  a  vast  accumulation 
of  human  knowledge  dispersed.  The  real  issue  made 
by  them,  however  unwittingly,  is  whether  philosophy 
shall  extirpate  theology,  or  theology  shall  extirpate 
philosophy ;  or,  stated  more  practically,  whether  civil- 
ization shall  reduce  Christianity  to  superstition,  or 
Christianity  reduce  civilization  to  barbarism. 

Now,  the  prime  error  of  such  ultraism  is  plainly  a 
false  view  of  the  normal  relations  of  reason  and  revela- 
tion. There  is  nothing  in  the  idea  of  either  to  neces- 
sitate collision  or  conflict.  Viewed  in  the  abstract,  the 
finite  and  the  infinite  mind,  the  divine  and  the  human 
intelligence,  cannot  be  presumed  to  be  in  a  state  of 
logical  opposition.  Each  may  have  its  own  distinct 
sphere,  method,  and  aim;  and,  at  the  same  time, 
safely  concede  the  like  to  the  other.  To  put  them 
at  war,  would  be  only  to  force  them  into  abnormal 
action.  It  may  be  taken  as  an  axiom,  that  it  is  at 
once  contrary  to  reason  to  oppose  revelation,  and 
contrary  to  revelation  to  oppose  reason.  So  that, 
where  any  antagonism  springs  up  between  them,  it 


16  rillLOSOPIITA    ULTIMA. 

must  be  treated  as  simply  anomalous,  and  such  abate- 
ments made  as  follows : — 

1.  It  is  apparent  rather  than  real.  Often  it  con- 
sists of  mere  logomachy,  which  would  disappear  on 
a  close  comparison  of  terms  and  views.  Theological 
creeds  and  scientific  theories  come  into  conflict,  not 
because  of  any  actual  disagreement  between  the  facts 
of  nature  and  the  truths  of  scripture,  but  solely  be- 
cause of  some  false  exegesis  on  the  one  side,  or  some 
false  induction  on  the  other.  All  truth  must  be 
found  consistent  with  itself,  when  freed  from  admix- 
ture with  error. 

2.  It  is  temporary  rather  than  permanent.  The 
least  developed  sciences  are  those  which  are  in  this 
stage  of  antagonism,  while  the  most  exact  and  com- 
plete are  already  passing  into  one  of  lasting  harmony. 
As  our  philosophy  and  our  theology  mature,  they 
will  correct  and  complement  each  other,  until  at 
length  they  shall  stand  forth  coincident.  The  nnity 
of  knowledge  is  as  axiomatic  as  the  unity  of  truth. 

3.  It  is,  in  some  of  its  effects,  salutary  rather  than 
hurtful.  By  means  of  it,  the  several  growths  of 
reason  and  revelation  in  history  have  been  disen- 
tangled, and  left  to  a  freer  and  more  fruitful  develop- 
ment. The  former  have  been  emancipated  from 
ecclesiastical  domination  and  fanatical  interference, 
and  the  latter  from  unsafe  alliances  with  bigotry 
and  superstition;  while  in  both  departments  new 
enthusiasms  have  been  kindled  and  a  minuter  divi- 


PIIILOSOPUTA   ULTIMA.  17 

sion  of  labors  promoted.  The  fiercest  controversy 
has  only  disciplined  them,  and,  in  the  end,  found 
them  to  be  but  friends  who  had  mistaken  each  other 
for  foes. 

By  such  proofs  as  these,  it  may  be  shown  that 
the  two  kinds  of  cognition,  whatever  else  they  may 
be,  are  not  hostile  and  exterminant,  but  distinct 
and  separate,  limiting  each  other  with  boundaries 
which  neither  can  pass  except  at  its  own  peril.  Let 
the  philosopher,  then,  who  would  invade  theology  be 
w^arned  by  that  heathen  fable  wherein  '^men  and 
gods  are  represented  as  unable  to  draw  Jupiter  to 
earth,  but  Jupiter  able  to  draw  them  up  to  heaven ;" 
and  let  the  theologian  who  would  invade  philosophy, 
be  warned  by  that  saying  of  a  Christian  sage,  "If 
you  will  try  to  chop  iron,  the  ax  becomes  unable  to 
cut  even  wood." 

In  contrast  with  this  class,  and  perhaps  occasioned 
by  it,  is  another  which  we  have  termed  the  indiffer- 
entists.  These  are  the  theologians  and  philosophers 
who  insist  upon  a  strict  indifference  between  reason 
and  revelation,  or  who  would  respectively  have 
reason  to  rationalize  without  revelation,  and  revela- 
tion to  dogmatize  without  reason.  They  stand  aloof 
from  every  question  into  which  scripture  and  science 
can  enter.  In  mutual  dread  of  inva^^icm,  they  seem 
to  have  agreed  upon  a  division  and  joint  occupancy 
of  the  domain  of  truth,  while  as  to  any  common 
ground  between  them,  they  will  keep  up  a  kind  of 


18  rniLOSOPniA  ultima. 

armed  neutrality  or  truce  until  either  shall  have 
demonstrated  his  power  to  take  and  hold  it  in 
defiance  of  the  other. 

The  theologian  of  this  class  does  not  invade,  but 
sim})ly  ignores  the  province  of  reason.  In  his  view, 
the  facts  of  nature  have  nothing  to  do  with  the 
truths  of  scripture,  and  are  to  be  treated  as  abso- 
lutel}-  irrelevant.  When  any  scientific  theory  assails 
his  exegesis,  he  is  at  no  pains  to  inquire  into  the 
relative  truth  or  value  of  either;  and  when  any 
scientific  discovery  sheds  new  illustration  upon  a 
revealed  doctrine,  he  shuns  it  as  a  questionable  ad- 
mixture of  the  sacred  with  the  secular  or  profane. 
He  clings  to  the  interpretations  of  a  former  and 
darker  age,  and,  in  the  face  of  all  the  light  of  mod- 
ern research,  refuses  either  to  correct  or  improve 
them.  Theology,  the  true  mother  of  the  sciences, 
is  turned  by  him  into  a  monster  w4io  spurns  them 
even  when  they  come  with  joined  hands  to  kneel  at 
her  feet. 

This  species  of  neutral  is  a  creature  of  modern 
controversy.  Alarmed  at  the  disastrous  inroads  of 
skepticism,  he  is  fain  to  think  there  can  be  no  peace 
or  safety  but  in  indifferency,  and  will  therefore  allow, 
within  the  limits  of  orthodoxy,  the  most  opposite 
opinions  upon  scientific  questions.  In  astronomy,  he 
will  not  inquire  whether  other  worlds  also  illustrate 
the  God  of  scripture,  or  are  but  a  mere  meaningless 
waste  of  matter.     In   geology,   he  will   not   decide 


PHILOSOPHIA   ULTIMA.  10 

whether  the  earth  has  2:)assed  through  long  eras  of 
creation,  or  was  literally  stratified,  with  all  its  fossils, 
in  the  space  of  a  week.  In  ethnology,  he  is  loth  to 
face  the  prohlem,  whether  the  unity  of  the  race  is 
one  of  origin  or  of  nature.  In  psychology,  he  is  now 
a  materialist  and  then  a  sjDiritualist.  In  sociology, 
he  is  by  turns  absolutist  or  reformer.  In  theology, 
he  is  unconsciously  half  deist  or  half  pantheist. 
Certain  only  of  his  revealed  creed,  he  is  dubious  of 
all  rational  researches. 

As  his  counterpart,  we  have  the  philosopher  of  the 
same  class.  He  would  not  invade,  but  only  ignore 
the  province  of  revelation.  Its  mysteries  are  in  his 
eyes  too  transcendental  and  vague  to  be  included  in 
exact  scientific  inquiries.  Should  his  theories  run 
counter  to  any  reigning  doctrine  or  interpretation  of 
scripture,  he  is  in  nowise  troubled  at  the  discrep- 
anc}',  or  should  they  seem  to  require  any  of  its  ideas 
or  records  for  their  OAvn  rational  support,  he  almost 
scorns  them  as  unscientific  and  prejudicial.  Even  his 
vocabulary  has  become  more  pagan  than  Christian. 
His  God  is  but  the  abstraction  of  a  "Great  First 
Cause"  or  a  personification  called  "Nature,"  and  all 
divine  works  and  purposes  are  to  him  but  "phenom- 
ena," with  their  "causes"  and  "laws."  The  very 
notion  of  a  Creator  he  lias  banished  from  the  crea- 
tion, and  thus  rendered  any  unity  of  knowledge  or 
of  research  impossible.  The  sciences,  torn  In  liim 
from  that  theology  which  nurtured  them,  have  gone 


20  pniLOSoniiA  ultima. 

lurth,  ii  \vraiigliiig  sisterhood,  to  wander,  estranged, 
and  disbanded. 

As  tlie  loniKT  kind  of  neutral  sprang  from  the  re- 
action against  infidelity,  so  this  latter  sprang  from 
the  reaction  against  sectarianism.  Perplexed  at  the 
medley  of  creeds  and  churches,  he  despairs  of  any 
certainty,  and  though  the  strictest  precisian  in  sci- 
ence, will  be  content  to  become  the  veriest  latitudin- 
arian  upon  all  theological  questions.  In  bibliology, 
he  is  at  a  loss  whether  to  treat  the  Bible  as  the  one 
catholic  revelation  or  as  a  kind  of  Hebrew  classic.  In 
christology,  he  cannot  decide  whether  to  regard  Jesus 
as  the  second  person  in  a  divine  trinity  or  as  a  Naza- 
rene  peasant.  In  anthropology,  he  is  not  certain 
whether  mankind  are  in  a  state  of  sin  and  misery  or 
in  a  stage  of  imperfect  development.  In  soterology, 
he  knows  not  whether  the  Saviour  of  the  world  was 
the  Lamb  of  God  or  the  most  heroic  of  martyrs.  In 
ecclesiology,  he  doubts  whether  the  church  is  a  visi- 
ble organization  or  an  invisible  communion  of  saints. 
In  eschatology,  he  queries  whether  the  resurrection, 
judgment,  heaven  and  hell,  are  solemn  realities  or 
oriental  metaphors.  Sure  only  of  his  scientific  dis- 
coveries, he  looks  with  distrust  upon  all  religious 
inquiries. 

Thus  the  indifierentists  on  both  sides  remain  fixed 
in  like  seclusion,  and  in  their  tendency  are  alike  dis- 
tracting. So  long  as  the  two  thus  avoid  each  other, 
a  kind  of  intellectual  duplicity  must  needs  be  fostered, 


PHILOSOPHIA   ULTIMA.  21 

and  rival  arbiters  of  truth  set  up  for  the  decision  of 
the  most  momentous  questions.  The  experiment 
they  are  making,  tliough  unconsciously,  is  that  of 
holding  one  thing  in  theology  and  another  thing  in 
philosophy,  or  of  rendering  philosophy  irreligious, 
and  theology  irrational,  while  practically  it  tends  to 
an  utter  divorce  of  Christianity  and  civilization,  with 
an  extravagant  development  of  each,  which  would 
only  make  their  collision  the  more  fearful  and  disas- 
trous, whenever,  in  any  great  social  crisis,  they  should 
rebound  from  the  forced  separation. 

Now^,  as  Ave  found  it  with  extremism,  so  is  it  with 
this  indiflferentism :  the  two  parties  proceed  upon  a 
false  view  of  their  normal  relations.  Though  they 
are  not  antagonistic,  yet  neither  are  they  indifferent. 
Though  they  need  not  oppose,  still  less  need  they 
avoid  each  other.  However  distinct  may  be  their 
spheres,  there  is,  notwithstanding,  intersection  and 
common  ground.  However  diverse  may  be  their 
methods  and  aims,  there  must  be  interaction  and 
harmony.  They  in  fact  presuppose  each  other,  and, 
unless  mutually  complemented,  would  be  alike  power- 
less and  dead.  Eeason  admits  and  craves  revelation; 
revelation  requires  and  stimulates  reason.  Whenever 
then  any  separation  arises  between  them,  like  that 
which  now  exists  as  a  reaction  from  their  unnatural 
conflict,  this  too  is  to  be  treated  as  anomalous,  and  in 
various  ways  may  be  proven  too  serious  to  be  over- 
looked or  palliated. 

3 


22  PHILOSOPIIIA   ULTIMA. 

1.  It  is  of  the  nature  of  a  schism  in  the  body  of 
truth.  Even  when  it  involves  no  strife  of  words  or 
of  opini(^ns,  no  collision  between  creeds  and  theories, 
yet,  brliind  the  show  of  peace  and  concord,  it  leaves 
the  natural  sundered  from  the  supernatural,  the  dis- 
covered from  the  revealed,  the  human  from  the  di- 
vine intelligence.  As  the  connection  between  nature 
and  scripture  insures  the  connection  between  philoso- 
phy and  theology,  any  forced  severance  of  them  tears 
truth  from  truth  which  God  hath  joined  together. 

2.  It  is  of  an  extent  involving  the  whole  mass  of 
knowledge.  Instead  of  being  partial  or  occasional,  it 
has  become  progressive  and  general.  It  may  be 
described  as  a  vast  schism  which  had  its  historical 
origin  in  the  Keformation  and  has  since  grown  and 
spread  through  all  the  sciences  with  a  tide  of  in- 
creasing disruption  and  anarchy.  The  time  is  passed 
when  theology  could  be  called  their  nurse  and  mis- 
tress. One  after  another  they  have  been  breaking 
away  from  their  ancient  pupilage  and  running  into 
seclusion  and  estrangement,  until  at  last  the  very 
idea  of  a  God,  that  only  bond  which  can  hold  them 
together,  even  as  it  alone  can  give  unity  to  the 
totality  of  phenomena  upon  which  they  proceed,  has 
been  formally  ignored,  and  it  has  become  the  opened 
secret  of  the  age  that  infidelity,  once  metaphysical, 
is  now  scientific,  and  science,  once  theological,  is  now 
all  but  atheistic. 

If  we  seek  the  traces  of  this  great  rupture,  we  find 


PHILOSOPHIA   ULTIMA.  23 

them  conspicuous,  not  merely  in  breaches  or  separii- 
tions,  but  also  in  actual  controversies,  waged  at  every 
point  of  contact  along  the  entire  range  of  secular 
and  sacred  learning.  As  we  have  seen,  there  is 
no  rational  science  in  which  are  not  to  be  found 
discovered  facts  left  detached  from  some  needed 
portion  of  revealed  truth,  and  no  revealed  science 
in  which  are  not  to  be  found  fundamental  doctrines 
directly  menaced  by  some  scientific  theory;  while, 
in  the  summary  department  of  philosophy  itself,  we 
have  the  two  opposing  hues  marshalled,  as  if  for  a 
last  decisive  encounter,  by  systems  which  array  the 
embodied  results  of  human  research  against  divine 
revelation  upon  the  avowed  principle  that  science, 
by  the  law  of  its  growth,  can  only  subsist  upon  the 
extinction  of  theology  and  is  destined  at  once  to 
destroy  and  supersede  it. 

Thus  that  body  of  knowledge  commonly  regarded 
as  most  exact  and  certain  is  fast  detaching  itself,  in 
jarring  fragments,  from  that  body  of  knowledge  com- 
monly regarded  as  most  sacred  and  beneficent.  And 
a  feeling  of  the  rupture  may  be  said  to  pervade  the 
whole  community  of  scholars,  ranging  between  the 
extremes  of  confident  skepticism  on  the  one  side 
and  vague  misgiving  on  the  other,  with  an  unsatis- 
factory suspension  of  judgment  among  conservatives; 
while  among  the  masses,  following  the  course  of  all 
great  intellectual  movements,  it  is  already  diffusing 
popular  influences  which  may  survive  long  after  it 


24  PIIILOSOPHIA   ULTIMA. 

shall  liave  received  sentence  at  the  tribunal  of  phi- 
losophy. 

3.  It  is,  in  its  issue,  fraught  with  the  direst  evils. 
No  mere  war  of  abstractions  or  strife  of  logic,  it  is 
ahwith-  unfolding  its  disastrous  effects  in  every 
sphere  of  human  interest. 

As  the  first  cLass  of  such  evils  may  be  cited  that 
very  anarchy  of  the  sciences  which  has  been  de- 
scribed. Only  the  charlatan  of  the  one  ]3arty  or  the 
bigot  of  the  other  could  be  blind  to  the  wild  confu- 
sion and  strife  which  now  reign  throughout  the  intel- 
lectual domain.  The  genuine  lover  of  truth  for  its 
own  sake,  on  whichever  side  he  may  be  ranged,  in- 
stinctively recoils  from  this  widening  breach  between 
our  knowledge  of  the  works  and  of  the  word  of  God, 
and  craves  all  possible  reconciliation,  if  only  as  an 
intellectual  necessity  and  a  rational  ideal.  That 
human  science  must  yet  reflect  divine  omniscience, 
or  that  divine  revelation  must  yet  be  supported  by 
a  human  demonstration,  is  at  once  a  yearning  and 
a  presentiment  of  the  philosophic  mind.  Next  in 
strength  and  nobleness  to  the  instinct  which  longs  to 
have  all  truth  is  that  which  longs  to  have  all  truth 
consistent  with  itself. 

As  a  second  class  of  evils,  and  consequent  upon 
the  former,  may  be  named  that  derangement  of  the 
educational  system,  secularization  of  learning  and 
sectarianism  of  the  professions,  in  which  the  great 
schism  has  practically  expressed  itself.      The  mere 


PHILOSOrniA   ULTIMA.  25 

pedants  of  either  side,  the  divines  and  savans,  sun- 
dered by  professional  antipathies  that  render  them 
almost  incapable  of  appreciating  each  other's  peculiar 
enthusiasm,  will  indeed  be  content  with  routine 
labors  and  special  researches  and  seek  no  intel- 
lectual commerce  beyond  their  own  province;  but 
original  seekers  for  truth  and  actual  contributors  to 
the  world's  stock  of  knowledge  in  all  the  walks  of 
learning  soon  find  themselves  meeting  together  on 
the  high  ground  of  first  principles,  and  in  proportion 
as  they  there  realize  a  community  of  opinions  and 
aims  will  they  escape  hurtful  collision  and  further 
each  his  own  beneficent  mission.  In  seeking  thus  to 
found  the  catholicity  of  learning  upon  the  unity  of 
science,  philosophy  puts  on  the  garb  of  philanthropy 
and  the  lover  of  truth  becomes  also  the  lover  of  his 
kind. 

As  a  third  and  still  more  obvious  class  of  evils 
may  be  mentioned  that  skepticism  in  religion,  radical- 
ism in  politics,  and  sensualism  in  art,  (both  industrial 
and  aesthetic,)  w^hich  are  the  final  results  of  such 
schismatic  knowledge  and  culture.  A  few  extrem- 
ists may  affect  to  regard  this  sore  conflict  between 
reason  and  authority,  order  and  progress,  mate- 
rial and  spiritual  culture,  as  normal,  necessary, 
or  incurable;  but  there  are,  this  hour,  in  all  lands 
and  classes,  enthusiastic  believers  in  social  regenera- 
tion as  at  once  v>^ithin  the  vision  of  prophecy  and  the 
scope  of  history.     And  it  is  by  the  disappearance  of 


26  PIIILOSOPHIA   ULTIMA. 

the  soctariaiiism  of  science  alone  that  they  may  hope 
for  the  disappearance  of  the  sectarianism  of  learning, 
religion,  and  politics.  For,  since  the  ideas  of  philo- 
sophers at  length  become  the  opinions  of  the  people, 
a  logical  compact  of  truth  and  knowledge  among 
thinlvcrs  and  scholars  must,  sooner  or  later,  be  fol- 
lowed by  a  practical  compact  of  institutions  and 
interests  among  the  masses.  In  thus  striving  after 
the  perfection  of  science,  philosophy  comes  to  the  aid 
of  humanity  in  its  effort  after  the  perfection  of  society. 

It  is  indeed  true,  as  has  already  been  hinted,  that 
each  of  these  great  evils  may  have  some  incidental 
and  compensating  good.  This  dissection  of  the  sci- 
ences, in  so  far  as  it  is  merely  artificial  and  logical, 
may  be  as  convenient  as  it  is  unavoidable ;  this  profes- 
sional zeal  and  academic  prejudice,  by  dividing  the 
task  of  philosophy,  may  promote  research  and  erudi- 
tion; and  even  these  social  conflicts  of  diverse  creeds, 
theories,  and  systems,  by  carrying  the  great  battle  of 
civilization  from  the  region  of  abstraction  into  that  of 
reality,  may  only  the  more  conspicuously  relieve 
truth  and  virtue  against  error  and  vice.  But  when 
we  have  duly  acknowledged  such  mercies  of  our  tran- 
sitional state,  there  still  remain  the  duty  and  the 
testimony  of  further  progress  and  higher  improve- 
ment. Even  while  we  hail  these  straggling  gleams  of 
light,  we  only  see  the  darkness  more  plainly  and 
long  for  the  day-spring. 

In  this  manner  it  is  to  be  shown  that  the  two 


PHILOSOPHIA   ULTIMA.  27 

kinds  of  science,  the  rational  and  the  revealed, 
though  they  may  not  be  in  a  state  of  deadly  warfare, 
are  nevertheless  in  a  state  of  direful  schism,  for  the 
healing  of  which  both  parties  should  yearn  and  labor. 
When  either  the  philosopher  would  dream  of  dis- 
pensing with  theology  or  the  theologian  of  dispensing 
with  philosophy,  let  both  remember  the  vital  bonds 
which  join  them  in  a  blessed  marriage,  and  dread 
any  coldness  between  them,  as  alike  with  any  con- 
flict fatal  to  the  cause  of  truth  and  humanity. 

We  next  pass,  in  our  hurried  review,  from  those 
who  are  averse  to  those  who  are  inapt  to  the  great 
reconciliation.  There  is  a  large  body  of  scholars, 
who,  while  rightly  inclined,  are  still  unfit  for  the 
work.  Though  impressed  with  its  necessity  and 
vastness,  yet  from  some  defect  of  mere  intellectual 
temperament  or  training,  they  either  fail  in  the  effort 
or  relinquish  it  as  hopeless.  We  divide  them  into 
impatients  and  despon dents. 

As  impatients  may  be  classed  those  theologians 
and  philosophers  who  are  in  haste  to  combine  their 
several  fruits  of  research,  but  overlook,  the  one  the 
claims  of  reason,  and  the  other  the  claims  of  reve- 
lation. No  border  question  can  arise  which  they  will 
not  at  once  force  to  a  settlement.  Already  sure  of 
the  ideal  unity  of  truth,  they  would  also  make  sure 
of  the  ultimate  system  of  knowledge  and  range  over 
each  other's  domain  in  search  of  materials  for  its  con- 
struction; while,  in  the  sphere  of  practice,  they  will 


28  PIIILOSOPHIA   ULTIMA. 

Straightway  organize  upon  its  basis  the  ultimate  sj^s- 
tem  of  society. 

The  theologian  of  this  mood  is  in  haste  to 
api)roi)riate  the  whole  existing  product  of  reason. 
Throughout  the  rational  division  of  each  science 
he  strays,  sifting  theories  and  culling  facts  to  be 
wrought  into  his  exegesis.  Astronomy  is  made  to 
localize  his  heaven  and  hell  and  yield  the  scenic 
material  of  his  judgment.  Geology  simply  enacts 
his  dramatic  week  of  the  creation.  Anthropology 
merely  upholds  his  Adamite  covenant.  Psychology 
shows  him  the  play  of  his  doctrines.  Sociology  gives 
him  the  scaffolding  and  waste  material  of  his  church 
polity.  And  even  rational  theology  is  taught  to  pro- 
nounce his  formulas  of  the  trinity  and  the  incarna- 
tion. Science  is  degraded  by  him  from  a  handmaid 
to  a  mere  slave  of  theology  and  put  to  the  drudgery 
of  propagandism. 

This  kind  of  impatient  is  an  offspring  of  modern 
dogmatism  in  forced  alliance  with  rationalism.  His 
creed,  involving  thus  a  mere  crude  mass  of  extraneous 
knowledge,  is  cherished  by  him  as  the  sum  of  truth; 
and  not  content  with  it  as  mere  dogma,  he  will  some- 
times be  found  pressing  it  through  all  practical  spheres 
as  the  only  cure  of  the  existing  social  anarchy.  He 
becomes  the  zealot,  who  would  heal  the  divisions  of 
philosoph}-  at  the  fount  of  ecclesiastical  infallibility, 
or  lull  the  dissensions  of  politics  with  peace-societies 
and  world's  congresses,  or  resolve  the  sects  of  religion 


PHILOSOPHIA   ULTIMA.  29 

by  himself  adding  another  to  the  medley,  or  by 
gravely  inviting  the  rest  of  Christendom  to  flock  into 
his  church  and  proceed  to  organize  the  millennium 
upon  his  platform.  A  seducing  prophet  only,  he 
builds  the  walls  of  Zion  with  untempered  mortar, 
and,  amid  the  clash  of  opinions  and  the  shock  of 
arms,  still  cries  peace,  when  there  is  no  peace. 

But  not  less  marked  is  his  mate,  the  philosopher 
of  the  same  temper.  He  would  appropriate  the 
whole  existing  product  of  revelation.  From  the 
revealed  portion  of  each  science  he  draws  doctrines 
and  texts  for  the  support  of  his  theories.  His  latest 
astronomical  speculations  he  finds  hinted  at  in  the 
Book  of  Job  and  the  Psalms.  His  geological  epochs 
he  unfolds  with  scientific  j^recision  from  the  first 
chapter  of  Genesis.  His  studies  in  ethnology  he 
spices  with  the  Mosaic  record  and  doctrine  of  races. 
His  psychology  he  is  pleased  to  have  foreshadowed 
by  the  metaphysical  writings  of  the  New  Testament. 
His  sociology  can  take  many  hints  from  the  propheti- 
cal scriptures.  And  even  his  absolute  religion  he 
admits  to  be  only  the  full  outgrowth  of  Judaism  and 
Christianity.  Theology  is  degraded  by  him  from  a 
queen  to  a  mere  vassal  of  science,  and  chained  to  the 
chariot  of  progress. 

This  kind  of  impatient  differs  from  the  other  in 
being  an  offspring  of  modern  rationalism  in  forced 
alliance  with  dogmatism.  His  hasty  digest  of  truth 
he  exalts  as  the  ideal  of  all  philosophic  yearning, 


30  PIIILOSOPIIIA    ULTIMA. 

and,  Irst  it  be  thought  a  mere  dream  of  the  clois- 
ter, he  ^\  ill  sometimes,  guised  as  a  harbinger  of  so- 
cial regeneration,  emerge  with  it  into  actual  life  and 
be  heard  piping  its  pastorals  through  all  the  din  of 
the  great  battle  between  truth  and  error.  He  be- 
comes the  reformer  who,  in  this  wayward  youth  of 
ci\ilization,  would  inaugurate  the  mature  reign  of 
reason  and  peace,  and,  taking  the  common  notions  of 
charity,  equality,  fraternity,  first  broached  in  scrip- 
ture and  proper  only  to  the  communion  of  saints, 
proceeds  to  erect,  over  the  very  embers  of  revolution, 
like  villages  upon  the  slope  of  a  volcano,  his  little 
sequestered  arcadias,  experimental  Utopias,  phalan- 
steries, communities,  which  we  are  invited  to  admire 
as  actual  models  of  Christian  society  and  advanced 
samples  of  the  millennium.  False  Messiah  of  the 
latter  day,  he  cries  lo !  here,  or  lo !  there,  and  would 
force  the  social  passions  into  a  hollow  compact  which 
is  but  like  the  truce  of  Herod  and  Pilate  when  Christ 
is  to  be  mocked  and  crucified. 

Thus  the  impatients  on  both  sides  are  running  into 
the  like  absurdity,  and  would  precipitate  the  same 
evils.  In  so  far  as  they  prevail,  they  only  fret  the 
cords  already  strained  between  philosophy  and  the- 
ology, and  threaten  to  wreck  both  Christianity  and 
civilization  in  worse  anarchy. 

Against  such  impatience  it  need  only  be  urged  that 
the  existing  are  not  the  normal  relations  of  reason 
and  revelation.     While  in  the  abstract  they  are  har- 


PHILOSOPHIA   ULTIMA.  31 

monious,  yet,  as  at  present  developed  and  adjusted, 
they  alike  demand  of  their  votaries  a  spirit  of 
mutual  deference  and  conciliation,  and  a  system  of 
preliminary  rules  of  equal  force  upon  both,  in  all 
their  joint  researches.  Any  forced  combination  of 
their  several  products,  like  that  now  so  frequently 
attempted,  overlooks  their  present  anomalous  condi- 
tion, and  is,  for  several  reasons,  to  be  discouraged. 

1.  It  is  at  best  specious  and  partial.  Too  often  it 
consists  of  a  mere  rude  welding  of  creeds  with  theo- 
ries; devoid  of  any  rational  consistence,  and  leaving 
out  large  portions  of  fact  or  mixing  others  with  mere 
conjecture.  No  cognitive  system  can  be  real  and 
universal  which  simply  accepts  or  rejects  the  results 
of  research  at  the  bidding  of  prejudice,  and  then 
works  them  into  a  fantastic  composition  to  please  a 
devout  or  philosophic  fancy.  Every  attempt  at  a 
summation  of  truth  which  proceeds  in  the  interest  of 
either  party,  so  far  from  involving  a  thorough  fusion 
of  know^ledge  with  knowledge,  can  only  issue  in  a 
crude  amalgam  of  fact  and  hypothesis,  of  fiction  and 
reality. 

2.  It  is,  in  its  mode  of  action,  illogical.  Instead  of 
patiently  waiting  for  a  strict  induction  and  full  exe- 
gesis, it  takes  the  existing,  imperfect  results  of  both, 
and  blindly,  without  any  reference  to  first  principles, 
proceeds  to  combine  them,  forcing  nature  out  of  its 
sphere  as  a  mere  witness  to  scripture,  and  scripture 
out  of  its  sphere  as  a  mere  witness  to  nature.    So  long 


32  PHILOSOPHIA   ULTIMA. 

as  a  scientific  speculation  is  not  verified,  or  a  theo- 
logical opinion  is  not  demonstrated,  the  risk  must  re- 
main, that,  in  using  either  for  the  benefit  of  the  other, 
Ave  may  l)e  but  driving  truth  into  alliance  with  error. 
The  knoAvn  in  both  is  alone  that  which  can  or  does 
become  consistent.  Only  when  we  have  logically 
adjusted  the  relations  of  reason  and  revelation,  and 
studied  all  the  phenomena,  upon  which  they  are 
respectively  exercised,  in  their  vital  connections,  and 
without  either  philosophical  or  theological  prejudice, 
will  we  be  able  to  frame  that  summative  system  by 
means  of  which  we  may  sift  the  ascertained  from  the 
conjectural,  fuse  the  discovered  and  revealed,  and 
so  build  the  temple  of  knowledge  with  the  lasting 
cement  of  truth. 

3.  It  is,  in  its  scope,  premature.  Without  project- 
ing any  scheme  of  logical  reconciliation  throughout 
the  rational  and  revealed  sciences,  but  simply  because 
their  established  portions  here  and  there  are  coming 
into  harmony,  it  goes  precipitately  to  work  upon  the 
vast  remainder,  and  would  mold  it  at  once  into  a 
system.  And  yet,  we  are  now  only  in  the  first  stages 
of  the  great  affiliation.  Fiercer  strifes  may  still 
await  us,  in  the  more  undeveloped  sciences,  than  any 
we  have  survived.  If  astronomy  could  make  such 
warfare,  at  the  mere  outposts  of  revelation,  when  it 
dwarfed  the  earth  into  an  atom  in  space ;  if  geology, 
at  the  walls  of  the  fortress,  strikes  such  a  panic  now 
that  it  threatens  to  reduce  man  to  an  ephemeron  in 


PHILOSOPHIA   ULTIMA.  33 

time ;  and  if  ethnology  is  actually  jarring  the  foun- 
dations Avith  its  effort  to  degrade  him  to  an  autocli- 
thon  in  the  scale  of  being;  what  may  we  expect, 
when,  at  length,  the  citadel  is  assailed  by  those 
sciences  which,  like  biology,  psychology,  and  soci- 
ology, having  human  nature  for  their  subject,  and 
involving  all  the  great  questions  of  human  duty  and 
destiny,  shall  impinge  upon  the  most  peculiar  topics 
of  inspiration,  upon  the  actual  contents  as  w^ell  as 
credentials  of  the  heavenly  message  ?  He  would  be 
blind  indeed  to  all  the  lessons  of  history,  who  dreams 
that  reason  and  revelation  have  yet  reached  the  limit 
either  of  their  opposition  or  contribution  to  each 
other;  and  if  we  may  be  cheered  by  past  triumphs, 
not  less  should  w^e  be  warned  to  prepare  for  coming 
trials. 

4.  It  is,  in  its  whole  practical  aim,  visionary.  Not 
only  does  it  presume,  without  any  truly  rational 
process,  to  have  reached  the  final  system  of  knowl- 
edge, but  it  hastens  to  organize  it  in  defiance  of 
the  present  social  state.  Whereas,  even  if  it  were 
the  true  ideal,  it  is  not  to  be  forced  upon  the  world 
in  the  w^ay  of  artificial  reform  and  social  reconstruc- 
tion. When  it  comes,  as  it  silently  pervades  the 
influential  mind,  it  may  bring  with  it  an  organizing 
force  of  its  own,  which,  without  visible  concert,  pass- 
ing through  and  beneath  all  mere  institutions,  shall 
slowly  dissolve  and  recompose  the  whole  existing 
civilization.     For  aught  we  can  tell,  the  present  sys- 


34  PIIILOSOPHIA   ULTIMA. 

tern  of  church  and  state,  with  all  its  jarring  sects  and 
governments,  may  be  left  upon  the  pathway  of  time 
as  a  mere  worn  chrysalis,  out  of  which  society  shall 
have  struggled  forth  into  new  life  and  freedom,  and 
the  entire  political  organization  of  the  race,  at  the 
time  when  the  nations  shall  be  fused  in  truth  and 
tranquilized  by  love,  have  an  aspect  of  patriarchal 
simplicity,  or  be  molded  into  some  new  and  homo- 
geneous structure  of  which  no  type  can  now  be  found. 
But,  whatever  it  may  be,  we  can  at  least  be  sure  that 
it  is  not  to  be  wrought  out  of  existing  institutions,  or 
by  immediate  efforts.  Certainly  no  sect,  political  or 
ecclesiastical,  now  shows  the  means  of  assimilating 
all  the  rest  as  by  sheer  propagandism,  or  through  any 
plastic  force ;  and  no  theory  of  human  perfectibility 
that  has  yet  been  broached  could,  by  the  mere  dis- 
play of  its  charms,  lull  the  social  tumult  to  peace. 

We  must  therefore  grant  that  the  two  parties,  as 
now  related,  cannot  at  once  be  brought  into  a  just,  safe, 
and  lasting  union.  By  rashly  overstepping  the  limits 
which  still  sunder  them,  and  illogically  proceeding 
to  a  forced  compact  of  their  several  bodies  of  knowl- 
edge, they  simply  come  into  false  relations,  which 
must  sooner  or  later  dissolve  and  throw  them  apart 
again  with  harsh  recoil  and  estrangement.  Let  not 
philosophy  offend  the  oracle  it  would  consult,  by  an 
irreverent  spirit;  and  let  not  theology  repel  the  in- 
telligence it  would  claim,  by  an  irrational  process; 
but  let  each  learn  the  other's  virtues  and  laws,  and 


I 


PHILOSOPHIA   ULTIMA.  35 

only  join  hands  in  the  oneness  of  truth   and   upon 
the  sure  footing  of  mutual  faith  and  love. 

But  now,  in  opposition  to  this  class,  and,  perhaps, 
in  reaction  from  it,  appears  the  other,  which  we  have 
called  the  despondents.  These  are  the  theologians 
and  philosophers  who  despair  of  any  reconciliation, 
and  can  but  lament  themselves  as  doomed  to  their 
present  relations.  The  strifes  and  breaches  between 
them  they  see  no  way  of  healing.  From  the  ideal 
unity  of  truth  they  turn  away  to  the  actual  disorder 
of  knowledge,  and  wander  amid  its  wilderness  as  in 
a  maze  of  contradiction  and  anomaly;  while,  in  the 
practical  sphere,  they  are  consistently  led  to  disavow 
all  attempts  at  social  amelioration,  and  to  give  up 
even  the  hope  of  human  progress. 

The  theologian  of  this  mood  will  disparage  not 
less  revelation  than  reason.  He  looks  upon  both  as 
belonging  to  an  earthly  and  transitory  state,  and 
hereafter  to  be  merged  and  lost  in  the  rapt  intuition 
and  full  apocalypse  of  truth.  The  one  is  so  erring 
and  the  other  so  meager,  he  cannot  hope  they  will 
ever  together  yield  enough  of  knowledge  to  displace 
all  ignorance,  or  indeed  do  scarcely  aught  else  than 
show  their  own  necessary  imperfection.  To  com- 
l)ine  the  mysteries  of  nature  with  those  of  scrip- 
ture, he  will  maintain,  must  only  breed  increased 
perplexity,  and  will  bewail  the  present  chaos  of 
creeds  and  theories  as  but  the  inevitable  and  fiiiul 
state  of  earthly  knowledge.     Astronomy,  in  his  view, 


3G  PHILOSOPHIA   ULTIMA. 

is  only  making  the  riddle  of  creation  more  complex ; 
geology,  vainly  trying  to  be  wiser  than  Genesis ;  eth- 
nology, dragging  the  inspired  genealogy  back  into  the 
mists  of  fable;  psychology,  swaying  in  the  paradox  of 
fate  and  free-will;  sociology,  probing  questions  that 
belong  to  prophecy;  and  even  divinity,  scaling  mys- 
teries that  require  another  revelation.  His  theology 
bids  adieu  to  science  as  a  lorn  child  of  earth,  and 
seeks  some  mystic  elysium  in  the  skies. 

This  type  of  despondent  is  a  growth  of  modem 
pietism  in  its  revolt  from  rationalism.  Traversing, 
it  may  be,  one  after  another,  the  speculative  theog- 
onies  in  which  philosophy  has  striven  to  swallow  up 
theology,  he  becomes  appalled  at  her  profane  attempt 
to  reconstruct  the  universe  by  mere  logical  process, 
and  flies  for  refuge  to  some  easy  creed  of  paradoxes, 
retaining  the  mass  of  truths  in  a  state  of  simple  con- 
tradiction. And  having  thus  cut  the  gordian  knot 
of  controversy,  he  thereby  detaches  himself  in  actual 
life  from  all  resultant  social  movements.  He  is  the 
ascetic  who  despairs  of  earthly  society  as  hopelessly 
corrupt  and  irredeemable,  or  he  becomes  in  some  form 
and  degree  the  millennarian,  whose  cure  for  its  intel- 
lectual and  moral  disorder  is  a  new  miraculous  dis- 
pensation to  be  inaugurated  by  the  visible  return  and 
reign  of  Messiah,  and  who  therefore  takes  the  present 
dispensation  as  simply  intercalated  in  order  to  sift 
out  the  elect  from  mankind,  while  all  its  accumu- 
lated sciences,  arts,  and  polities  are  to  be  viewed  as 


PHILOSOrniA   ULTIMA.  37 

mere  splendid  rubbish  of  sin,  soon  to  be  wrecked  in 
the  flames  of  a  vast  judicial  conflagration. 

Of  like  gloomy  temper  is  the  philosopher  of  the 
same  chass.  He  would  disparage  not  less  reason  tlian 
revelation.  In  his  view,  they  are  both  occupied  with 
questions  which  are  insolvable,  and  upon  which  to- 
gether they  can  shed  only  enough  of  light  to  make 
the  darkness  visible;  the  one  serving  no  better  pur- 
pose than  to  show  the  unrevealed  to  be  unrevealable, 
and  the  other  no  higher  aim  than  to  prove  the  undis- 
covered to  be  undiscoverable.  He  will  even  argue 
that  their  joint  process  must  have  its  logical  goal  in 
the  incomprehensible  and  unknown,  and  will  cite  the 
meager  conclusions  in  which  they  unite  as  proof  that 
all  our  knowledge  is  but  a  laborious  learning  of  our 
ignorance.  He  finds  no  choice  between  the  inspired 
and  the  speculative  cosmogonies;  between  the  myths 
of  paganism  and  the  miracles  of  Judaism;  between 
the  predestination  of  scripture  and  the  fatahsm  of 
nature;  between  the  millennium  of  the  prophet  and 
the  Utopia  of  the  philosopher;  and  for  him  tlie  un- 
searchable Jehovah  and  the  notional  Absolute  are 
alike  the  unknown  God.  Science  is  to  him  but  a 
cruel  Sphinx,  whose  smile  only  mocks  while  it  charms, 
and  at  whose  feet  even  Theology  must  sit  in  dumb 
despair. 

This  type  of  despondent  diflers  from  the  other  in 
being  a  growth  of  modern  skepticism  in  its  revolt 
from    dogmatism.     Long   familiar,   it   may    be,  with 

4 


38  PITILOSOPHIA   ULTIMA. 

those  mystic  theodicies  by  which  theology  has 
striven  to  supersede  philosophy,  he  becomes  disgusted 
at  her  fond  effort  to  array  the  universe  as  a  mere 
didactic  marvel,  and  lapses  to  some  bald  creed  of 
negations  retaining  in  itself  the  merest  fragment 
of  truth.  And  having  thus  shorn  away  his  whole 
faith,  he  loses  all  motive  to  humane  exertion.  He 
becomes  the  cynic,  who  sneers  at  the  present  social 
state  as  but  a  kind  of  tragic  farce;  or  the  optimist, 
who  accepts  it  as  fixed  and  unimprovable;  or  the 
fatalist,  who  dooms  it  to  certain  vast  cycles  or  recur- 
rences, like  the  stages  of  growth  and  decline  in 
nature,  and  pensively  sighs  over  the  grandeur  and 
decadence  of  empires,  arts,  and  sciences  as  but  the 
melancholy  lesson  of  all  human  history. 

Thus  the  despondents  on  both  sides  are  falling  into 
apathy,  and  would  alike  paralyze  all  effort.  If  they 
can  be  said  to  admit  any  question  between  theology 
and  philosophy,  it  is  only  to  adjourn  it  at  once  to 
another  life,  or  reduce  it  to  a  nullity;  while  the 
whole  existing  civilization  and  Christianity  they 
treat  as  simply  experimental  and  abortive. 

Against  this  last  and  most  specious  of  the  errors 
under  review,  it  only  remains  to  urge  that  the  pros- 
pective must  grow  out  of  the  existing  relations  of 
reason  and  revelation.  Though  neither  is  now  in 
full  harmony  with  the  other,  yet  both  are  in  an 
actual  process  of  reconciliation.  Far  distant  as  may 
seem  their  destined  coincidence,  yet  we  are  at  least 


PIIILOSOPHIA    ULTIMA.  39 

at  its  beginnings,  and  may  already  strive  for  its  ac- 
complishment. The  despair  that,  on  account  of  some 
first  failures,  would  abandon  it,  or  postpone  it  to  an 
ideal  heaven  or  a  future  dispensation,  is  to  be  re- 
buked for  several  reasons : — 

1.  Its  spirit  is  weak  and  ignoble.  What  if  it  ha 
true,  that  all  present  knowledge  must  soon  be  lost  in 
beatific  vision,  or  be  eclipsed  by  millennial  glory,  or 
is  at  best  but  confused  and  meager, — shall  we  there- 
fore despise  it,  and  make  no  effort  to  purge  and  in- 
crease it?  Had  the  generations  before  us  so  thought 
and  acted,  where  now  would  have  been  the  Chris- 
tianity and  civilization  which  adorn  our  era?  So 
long  as  we  are  on  the  earth,  and  memJDers  of  the 
race  it  nourishes,  it  will  be  a  high  duty,  as  well  as 
instinct,  to  swell  the  tide  of  truth  in  all  lands 
through  all  time.  Better  far  to  toil  after  even  an 
impossible  ideal  of  knowledge,  than  to  sink  in  supine 
ignorance;  better  to  yearn  after  the  boundless  un- 
known as  ever  knowable,  than  to  despair  of  it  as 
unknowable.  The  worthy  aim  and  rational  goal  of 
science  is  not  nescience,  but  omniscience. 

2.  Its  premises  are  narrow  and  unfounded.  Be- 
cause the  rational  and  revealed  sciences  are  as  yet 
imperfect  and  discordant,  it  does  not  follow  that 
reason  and  revelation  themselves  are  defective  and 
in  need  of  some  miraculous  readjustment.  We  can- 
not, in  fact,  conceive  of  any  better,  or  any  other 
modes  of  cognition,  than  those  with  which  we  are 


40  niiLOSorniA  ultima. 

now  familiar.  A  future  state,  wherein  the  soul  is  to 
seize  tlir  whole  infinitude  of  truth  by  one  swift  intui- 
tion, or  in  one  blazing  apocalypse,  is  but  the  chimera 
of  a  devout  fancy.  As  the  Infinite  mind  has  been 
gradual  in  unfolding  the  universe,  so  must  the  finite 
mind  be  gradual  in  reviewing  it;  and  if  the  Creator 
passes  through  chaos  to  cosmos  in  the  process  of 
creation,  shall  not  the  creature,  retracing  that  pro- 
cess, be  ofttimes  bewildered  and  worn  ere  he  reach 
the  vision  and  sabbath  of  perfect  knowledge?  It 
would  seem  to  result  from  their  logical  relations  to 
one  another,  that  it  is  the  function  of  the  finite 
reason  to  recapitulate  the  Infinite  Reason;  that  in 
this  endless  effort  after  the  divine  rationale  of  the 
universe,  the  sciences  must  ever  proceed  as  now  by 
joint  intuition  and  experience,  and  in  the  order  of 
the  creative  logic  from  the  simpler  to  the  more 
complex  phenomena,  from  the  radical  to  the  com- 
posite forces,  from  mathematics  through  physics  and 
ethics  to  theology — each  resuming  the  one  behind  it, 
and  requiring  the  one  before  it;  that  since  this  prob- 
lem of  creation,  upon  which  they  are  engaged,  has 
immensity  for  its  scene  and  eternity  for  its  scope, 
both  celestial  and  terrestrial  races  are  combined  in 
the  mighty  argument  on  the  basis  of  their  present 
material  and  spiritual  organization;  and  that  there 
can  be  no  pause  nor  retreat  in  their  progress,  but 
only  an  eternal  approximation  of  that  fullness  of 
knowledge   which   shall    be    gained    when    all    the 


PHILOSOPniA   ULTIMA.  41 

worlds  of  space  shall  have  given  up  their  secrets, 
and  all  the  ages  of  time  shall  liave  unfolded  then- 
marvels,  and  God  shall  l)e  all  in  alL 

3.-  It  ignores  past  progress.  Appalled  at  the  vast- 
ness  of  the  unknown,  it  overlooks  the  known,  and  is 
blind  to  the  immense  advance  of  the  present  over 
former  generations.  Whereas,  the  actual  history  of 
the  sciences  shows  that  they  involve  a  logical  unfold- 
ing of  the  Infinite  by  the  finite  mind,  and  that  the 
law  of  their  evolution  is  a  gradual  return  into  tliat 
theology  out  of  which  they  may  seem  to  have  Ijeen 
departing,  whereby,  through  their  own  discoveries, 
they  but  authenticate  the  facts  and  prove  the  truths 
of  revelation.  Astronomy  has  already  emerged  from 
the  mists  of  infidel  criticism  with  an  overwhelming 
exhibition  of  the  God  of  scripture  as  also  the  God  of 
nature,  and  the  reasonable  presumption  is,  that  the 
whole  train  of  the  sciences  in  their  normal  order 
will  follow,  until  the  entire  Deity  as  revealed  shall 
be  also  demonstrated;  that  illustration  of  his  natural 
attributes  afforded  by  physics  at  length  finding  its 
crown  and  complement  in  a  still  more  glorious  illus- 
tration of  his  moral  attributes  at  the  hands  of  ethics. 
Even  geology  may  yet  elucidate  Genesis,  and  sociology 
forecast  the  Apocalypse:  the  one  by  a  scientific  revi- 
sion of  the  course  of  nature,  and  the  other  by  a  scien- 
tific prevision  of  the  course  of  humanity.  And  when 
at  length  the  terrestrial  physics  and  ethics  are  thus 
complete,  there  will  be  the  means  of  projecting  that 


42  PHILOSOPIIIA    ULTIMA. 

system  of  celestial  physics  and  ethics,  through  which 
to  mount,  in  endless  progression,  toward  the  perfect 
theology,  or  science  of  omniscience.  To  suppose  that 
this  grand  series  could  be  rudely  broken  by  a  miracu- 
lous millennium,  and  so  much  of  it  as  already  lies  in 
the  past  left  without  its  logical  sequel  and  comple- 
ment in  the  future,  would  be  to  suj)pose  an  anomaly 
for  which  all  nature  could  give  no  analogy,  precedent, 
or  palliation. 

4.  It  mistakes  the  present  social  exigency.  In  all 
ages,  the  vulgar  mind  has  craved  prodigies  and  catas- 
trophes rather  than  the  ordinary  means  of  Providence 
for  the  world's  regeneration,  and  can  still  think  of  no 
better  corrective  of  its  existing  moral  and  intellectual 
evils,  than  some  new  divine  economy  to  be  forced 
upon  it  by  means  of  destructive  judgments,  involving 
vast  planetary  or  political  convulsions.  In  this  re- 
spect, the  despondent  differs  from  the  impatient  only 
in  seeking  a  miraculous  rather  than  an  artificial 
reconstruction  of  society.  It  may  be  vain  to  argue 
against  such  a  vice  of  thought,  blended  as  it  often  is 
with  the  purest  faith  and  zeal;  and  yet  there  will, 
notwithstanding,  always  be  those,  having  like  faith 
and  zeal,  whom  it  fails  to  satisfy,  and  who  are  con- 
tent to  look  for  a  millennium  which  shall  be  an 
intelligible  triumph  of  the  divine  through  the  human 
reason,  over  all  error  and  sin ;  a  growing  demonstra- 
tion of  truth,  before  which  all  false  opinions  and  in- 
stitutions shall  slowly  fade  like  mists  and  clouds  of 


PHILOSOPHIA   ULTIMA.  43 

sunrise,  until  the  whole  race  is  transfigured  and  the 
earth  full  of  the  glory  of  God.  This  view  is  to 
be  preferred  for  several  reasons. 

(1.)  It  is  more  in  keeping  with  the  analogies  of 
prophecy.  No  principle  is  plainer  than  that  the  tran- 
sition of  prophecy  into  histor}^  appears  violent  and 
dramatic  only  in  prospect.  As  the  Christian  economy 
quietly  resumed  and  carried  forward  the  Hebrew 
economy,  so  the  milennial  economy  may  prove  to  be 
but  the  existing  world  as  matured  and  perfected.  Or 
if  a  destruction  of  the  present  physical  system  be 
within  the  scope  of  scripture  and  of  nature,  it  would 
seem  that  it  could  only  be  with  a  view  to  some  more 
glorious  reconstruction,  whereby  the  whole  past  shall 
be  taken  up  again  into  the  future,  even  as  Providence 
has  already  erected  the  modern  out  of  the  ante-dilu- 
vian  world,  and  yet  left  both  the  individual  and  the 
social  constitution  of  the  race  unimpaired. 

(2.)  It  is  more  in  keeping  with  the  analogies  of 
history.  All  philosophic  historians  are  beginning  to 
conceive  of  the  career  of  humanity  as  spiral  rather 
than  circular,  marked  by  average  progression  rather 
than  mere  fruitless  recurrences.  Great  men  may  live 
and  die,  empires  may  rise  and  fall,  civilizations  may 
flourish  and  decay;  but  the  race  itself,  inheriting  and 
transmitting  from  one  generation  to  another,  always 
survives,  and,  phenix-like,  springs  for  bolder  flights 
and  grander  prospects.  Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Roman 
ideas  are  still  powerful  in  modern  society,  though  the 


44  PHILOSOPHIA    ULTIMA. 

nations  which  wrought  them  out  have  ages  since 
perished.  Can  we  believe,  in  the  face  of  six  thousand 
years  of  such  progress,  that  the  social  system  is  to  be 
arrested  or  destroyed?  After  all  the  advance  that 
has  been  made  in  the  lapse  of  time,  will  any  millen- 
nium seem  too  distant  or  Utopian  to  have  its  growth 
out  of  even  this  present  world? 

(3.)  It  is  demanded  by  the  organization  of  society. 
According  to  that  organization,  the  progress  of  the 
arts  depends  upon  the  progress  of  the  sciences,  and 
the  former  come  to  fruition  in  the  order  of  the  latter. 
Already  the  physical  arts  are  shedding  a  millennial 
splendor  in  the  marvels  of  printing,  steam,  and  tele- 
graphy, while  the  remaining  series  begin  to  presage 
the  decline  of  caste,  war,  and  superstition,  through 
the  agency  of  commerce,  diplomacy,  and  philan- 
thropy. And  it  enters  into  the  very  notion  of  social 
regeneration,  that  this  social  structure  should  con- 
tinue to  be  developed  until  its  ideal  is  fully  realized 
and  the  whole  race  is  intellectually,  morally,  and 
physically  transformed.  Upon  any  other  terms,  a 
millennium,  properly  speaking,  is  simply  inconceiv- 
able. 

(4.)  It  harmonizes  the  otherwise  conflicting  inter- 
ests which  science  and  religion  have  fostered.  In- 
stead of  abandoning  both,  or  postponing  both  to  some 
vague,  far  hereafter,  it  begins  at  once  to  practically 
unite  the  natural  and  the  supernatural,  the  terres- 
trial and  the  celestial,  the  human  and  the  divine.     In 


PHILOSOPIIIA   ULTIMA.  45 

its  light,  heaven  is  found  to  be  but  the  full  llower  of 
earth.  Tlie  kingdom  of  the  heavens  is  that  reahn  of 
planets,  suns,  and  stars  to  which  the  earth  is  hotli 
spiritually  and  materially  linked,  of  which  now  we 
have  only  some  hints  from  celestial  mechanics  and 
chemistry,  but  which  shall  yet  be  more  fully  unfolded 
by  celestial  sociology  and  theology,  as  the  abode  of 
our  Father  who  is  in  the  heavens,  of  whose  Son  the 
whole  family  both  in  heaven  and  earth  is  named. 
The  world  to  come  is  to  be  thought  of  as  being  his- 
torically developed  out  of  the  world  that  now  is,  and 
the  life  of  the  individual  so  bound  up  in  the  life  of 
the  race  that  both  have  their  resurrection  together, 
whensoever  the  spiritual  so  predominate  over  the 
material  forces  of  the  planet  as  to  transfigure  it  into 
an  abode  of  truth  and  righteousness.  Even  the 
coming  of  the  Son  of  Man  to  judge  both  quick  and 
dead,  and  the  triumphal  meeting  of  saints  and  angels 
in  the  skies,  may  be  viewed  as  not  less  a  crisis  than  a 
pageant;  the  rational  blending  of  the  earthly  into  the 
heavenly  history;  the  winged  globe  bursting  from  its 
chrysalis  and  blazoning  its  cross  among  the  stars. 

We  therefore  now  conclude,  after  a  full  survey  of 
all  modern  opinion,  that  the  two  kinds  of  knowledge 
by  which  it  is  divided  are  not  only  reconcilable,  but 
actually  being  reconciled.  Let  neither  the  philoso- 
pher nor  the  theologian  despair  of  their  ultimate 
coincidence,  but  rather  let  both  strive  together  to 
effect  it,  and  therein  hail  at  once  the  thorough  fusion 


46  PHILOSOPIITA    ULTIMA. 

of  Christianity  and  civilization,  and  the  practical 
union  of  earth  and  heaven. 

And  now,  in  the  course  of  ages,  through  the  divine 
wisdom  and  goodness,  the  time  seems  at  hand  when 
this  great  truth  is  by  them  both  to  be  seized  and 
applied.  The  world  is  fast  ripening  for  the  issue. 
After  six  thousand  years,  it  presents  at  length  the 
two  realms  of  Heathendom  and  Christendom  under 
the  two  phases  of  barbarism  and  civilization,  mar- 
shalled as  if  for  the  last  conflict  of  error  and  truth ; 
and  it  remains  to  be  seen  whether,  through  the  union 
of  religion  and  science,  civilization  is  not  to  be  trans- 
fused with  Christianity,  heathendom  supplanted  by 
Christendom,  earth  joined  to  the  kingdom  of  the 
heavens,  and  mankind  brought  into  the  family  of  the 
Universal  Father. 

Nor  could  there  be  conceived  a  problem  more  sub- 
lime and  momentous  than  that  which  is  thus  given  to 
our  age  to  solve.  To  ascertain  the  respective  spheres, 
prerogatives,  and  methods  of  human  reason  and 
divine  revelation;  to  adjust  their  reciprocal  rela- 
tions on  principles  binding  upon  the  adherents  of 
both;  to  apply  such  principles  throughout  the 
sciences  to  all  pending  controversies,  with  the  view 
of  sifting  error  from  truth;  to  gather  by  this  means 
evidence  of  a  growing  harmony  between  the  two 
great  bodies  of  knowledge,  as  they  accumulate  and 
advance,  supporting,  interpenetrating,  and  illustrating 
each  other;  in  a  word,  to  gradually  heal   that  im- 


PIIILOSOPHIA   ULTIMA.  47 

mense  schism  which  for  centuries  has  been  stealthily 
invading  the  most  cherished  opinions  and  interests  of 
mankind,  and  thenceforward  to  link  the  divine  and 
human  reason,  in  their  joint  process  through  coming 
ages,  against  all  earthly  error  and  sin, — these  are  ob- 
jects which  have  only  to  be  stated  in  order  to  be  felt 
in  all  their  moral  value  and  grandeur.  They  are  not 
the  transient  concerns  of  any  calling,  sect,  or  party, 
but  the  lasting  and  catholic  interests  of  humanity. 
And  though  no  single  mind  or  generation  may  achieve 
them,  yet  the  bare  conception  and  attempt  would 
themselves  be  their  own  sufficient  reward.  To  be 
simply  living  at  a  time  when  such  an  ideal  is  but 
beginning  to  dawn  among  men,  must  seem  to  one 
who  rises  to  its  full  comprehension,  the  richest  boon 
that  has  yet  been  conferred  upon  them,  and,  in  the 
first  joy  of  its  discovery,  he  might  almost  tremble 
lest  it  be  too  good  and  glorious  ever  to  become  real, 
or  through  some  fault  or  want  in  nature,  should  fall 
short  of  fulfillment,  could  he  not  find,  on  surveying 
the  scale  and  resources  of  creation,  that  the  order  of 
the  world  is  not  less  fixed  than  is  its  progress  sure. 

What  is  now  needed  is  no  new  system  or  school  of 
philosophy,  but  rather  the  discovery  and  announce- 
ment of  vast  movements  of  the  philosophic  mind, 
involving  all  schools  and  systems  in  their  sweep, 
and  destined,  after  centuries  of  hidden  growth,  to 
be  brought  into  conscious  activity  and  visible  co- 
operation.      The    field   of    research,   like    a   quarry 


48  PIlILOSOrillA    ULTIMA. 

wrought  by  successive  generations,  already  lies 
strewn  with  fragmentary  truths,  which  are  as  the 
chiseled  stones  of  a  structure  hitherto  without  model 
even  in  the  fancy  of  the  builders,  as  they  wrought 
apart  each  at  his  own  task;  but  now,  at  last,  the 
plan  of  the  Divine  Architect  is  to  be  displayed,  the 
master-workmen  in  each  science  marshalled,  and  the 
perfect  temple  of  knowledge  reared,  to  the  glory  of 
God  and  for  the  good  of  mankind. 

This  mature  effort  and  final  task  of  the  human 
mind  may  be  anticipated  under  the  name  of  the 
ultimate  philosophy,  or  that  last  summative  science 
which  is  to  be  the  fruit  and  goal  and  crown  of  all 
the  sciences,  as  well  as  the  means  of  their  highest 
use  and  grandeur.  Before  the  cognitive  instinct  can 
be  satisfied,  and  the  mass  of  knowledge  rendered 
exact,  coherent,  and  operative,  the  sciences  them- 
selves must  be  made  the  subject  of  science;  must  be- 
come the  material,  as  well  as  instrument,  of  research, 
and  their  product,  like  other  phenomena,  be  brought 
within  the  sphere  of  rational  prevision  and  control. 
If  we  could  imagine  them  perfected  singly  and  apart, 
there  would  still  remain  the  work  of  bringing  them 
into  logical  connection,  organizing  them  as  a  compact 
system,  and  concentrating  them  intelligently  upon  the 
social  well-being;  but  this  work  really  enters  into  their 
growth  as  well  as  fruition,  and  is  so  essential,  they 
may  as  little  thrive  without  it  as  branches  severed 
from  a  common  tree.    To  discover  these  vital  relations 


PlIILOSOPIIIA    ULTIMA.  49 

among  them,  to  arrange  them  in  their  normal  order, 
to  distinguish  their  kinds,  measure  their  resources, 
ascertain  the  laws  of  their  evohition  and  interaction, 
and  at  length  frame  a  theory  by  means  of  which 
their  whole  historic  procedure  may  not  only  be  re- 
viewed and  foreseen,  but  itself  corrected,  guided,  and 
matured, — this  is  the  ideal  of  the  ultimate  philoso- 
phy. Itself  the  latest  offspring  of  science,  equipped 
with  all  means  and  modes  of  knowledge,  it  aims  to 
traverse  the  entire  domain  of  intelligence,  everywhere 
sifting  the  known  from  the  unknown,  and  gathering 
the  fragments  of  truth  into  an  intelligible  and  consist- 
ent whole.  It  is,  in  a  word,  that  science  of  science 
which  science  itself  shall  yield,  and  wherefrom  are  to 
be  shed  upon  the  world  the  full  flower  and  fruitage  of 
reason. 

The  conception,  the  necessity,  the  utility,  the  rise 
and  growth,  and  the  method  of  this  ultimate  philoso- 
phy, are  topics  which  may  be  discussed  at  length 
hereafter.  Three  great  works  or  efforts  are  included 
in  its  project:  1.  Its  construction  out  of  the  sciences. 
2.  Its  application  to  the  sciences.  3.  Its  consumma- 
tion of  the  sciences.  These  we  here  simply  propound 
as  themes,  condensing  into  sentences  what  may  be 
expanded  into  volumes. 

The  work  of  constructing  the  ultimate  philosophy 
may  be  projected  as  follows : — 

It  must  begin  with  an  Expurgation  of  the  Sciences, 
By  this  is  meant  the  sifting  from  them  ol'  those  pre- 


50  PHILOSOPHIA   ULTIMA. 

judices,  physical,  metaphysical,  and  theological,  (the 
icMa  theatri  of  Bacon,)  which  are  the  offspring  of 
their  own  rank  growth  and  schismatic  culture,  and 
which  now  hinder  direct  access  to  the  whole  body  of 
knowledge  as  it  lies  scattered  among  the  different 
professions  and  in  various  departments  of  learning. 
When  the  eye  of  reason  is  thus  purged  of  all  films  of 
conceit  and  passion,  and  the  prospect  cleared  of  every 
mist  and  cloud  of  error,  it  will  be  ready  to  embrace 
in  one  view  the  whole  field  of  truth,  of  whatever  sort 
and  wherever  found. 

The  next  step  will  therefore  be  this  Survey  of  the 
Sciences,  or  particular  examination  of  their  several 
provinces  and  products.  This  will  include  the  his- 
tory and  logic  of  each  species,  and  a  consequent 
classification  or  arrangement  of  them,  which  shall 
be  accurate,  complete,  and  consistent,  which  shall 
neither  degrade  the  physical  sciences  as  in  German 
philosophy,  nor  the  metaphysical  as  in  English  philo- 
sophy, nor  the  theological  as  in  French  philosophy, 
but  annexing  the  physical  to  the  metaphysical,  and 
complementing  both  with  the  theological,  shall  exhibit 
them  together  in  the  order  of  nature,  of  history,  of 
reason,  and  of  sound  culture.  They  will  thus  be 
fully  digested  and  prepared  as  the  material  of  induc- 
tion, or  as  the  intellectual  phenomena  to  be  studied 
and  explained. 

It  will  then  only  remain  to  frame  a  Theory  of  the 
Sciences,  or   doctrine   of    perfect    knowledge.      This 


PHILOSOPHIA   ULTIMA.  51 

may  here  be  brielly  stated  in  the  form  of  several 
postulates:  1.  There  are,  and  can  be,  but  two  kinds 
or  modes  of  knowledge,  with  their  correspondent 
spheres  of  cognition;  the  one  a  know^ledge  of  the 
laws  of  phenomena,  and  the  other  a  knowledge  of 
their  causes;  the  one  empirical,  and  the  other  intui- 
tional; the  one  derived  from  reason,  and  the  other 
from  revelation.  Astronomy  is  the  most  perfect 
example  of  the  former,  and  theology  of  the  latter. 

2.  These  two  modes  of  knowledge  are  neither  re- 
pellent nor  indifferent,  but  connected  and  comple- 
mental,  and  together  form  the  sum  of  the  knowable 
in  respect  to  every  class  of  facts.  Astronomy,  for 
example,  is  both  discoverable  and  revealable,  though 
in  unequal  porportions,  being  at  once  a  human  sys- 
tem of  celestial  physics  and  a  divine  manifestation  of 
our  Father  who  is  in  the  heavens;  and  either  would 
be   incomplete    or   unsupported   without    the   other. 

3.  These  two  modes  of  knowledge  correct  each  other 
by  their  own  interaction,  and,  both  logically  and  his- 
torically, tend  to  ultimate  coincidence  and  harmony. 
Revealed  theology  already  accepts  the  discovered 
astronomy  which  it  once  repelled;  and  discovered 
astronomy  still  requires  the  revealed  theology  which 
it  has  abandoned.  4.  The  knowledge  of  laws  and  the 
knowledge  of  causes  must  both,  at  last,  be  resumed  in 
the  knowledge  of  God,  the  First  Cause  and  Highest 
Law,  in  whom  all  phenomena  rest  and  move  with 
perpetual  and  manifold  reflection  of  his  glory.     In 


52  PHILOSOPHIA   ULTIMA. 

other  words,  ontology  or  theology  is  the  keystone  of 
that  nomology  and  a}tiology  which  must  meet  in  it 
to  form  the  triumphal  arch  of  perfect  knowledge,  or 
else  remain  a  mere  fragmentary  mass  of  truths  with- 
out rational  support  and  consistency. 

Thus,  according  to  our  doctrine  of  knowledge,  the 
sciences,  when  thoroughly  expurgated  and  surveyed, 
may  be  reduced  from  a  mere  medley  to  a  system  in 
which  their  procession  shall  correspond  to  that  of  the 
phenomena  with  which  they  are  concerned ;  the  law 
of  their  growth  shall  be  a  gradual  coincidence  of 
reason  and  revelation;  their  perpetual  effort  shall  be 
a  logical  review  of  the  divine  by  the  human  intelli- 
gence through  all  the  categories  of  fact  from  the 
mathematics,  in  which  the  universe  has  its  primordial 
root,  to  the  theology,  in  which  it  finds  its  perennial 
flower;  and  their  goal,  ever  to  be  approached  but 
never  attained,  shall  be  that  omniscience  wherewith, 
looking  back  as  with  the  eye  of  God  through  all  his 
word  and  works  and  ways,  we  shall  know  even  as 
also  we  are  known. 

With  the  formation  and  verification  of  a  theory  of 
the  sciences,  the  work  of  constructing  the  ultimate 
philosophy  would  be  accomplished.  And  it  would 
mark  the  utmost  limit  of  human  cognition.  Reason 
will  have  entered  its  last  province  when  it  thus  retires 
to  reflect  upon  its  own  product.  The  speculative 
propensity  will  have  attempted  its  crowning  task 
when  it  thus  seeks  the  law  of  its  own  action  and 


PHILOSOPHIA   ULTIMA.  53 

clearly  proposes  to  itself  tlie  ideal  of  its  own  eeascless 
aspiration.  Science  will  liave  no  other,  as  it  conld 
have  no  higher  aim,  when  it  thns  strives  to  know 
itself.  Let  this  first  work  therefore  be  called  the 
science  of  the  sciences. 

But  if  we  now  suppose  such  a  theory  to  have  been 
propounded,  we  will  not  be  content  to  cherish  it  as  a 
mere  toy  of  speculation  or  creature  of  the  philosophic 
fancy,  but  be  ready  to  return  Avitli  it  among  the 
sciences  from  which  it  was  drawn,  and  apply  it  as  an 
organ  of  their  further  culture,  or  as  the  means  not 
merely  of  observing  and  explaining,  but  also  of  cor- 
recting and  maturing  their  processes,  of  making  the 
imperfect  profit  by  the  mistakes  of  the  perfect,  and 
giving  them,  as  a  whole,  a  more  precise,  concerted 
and  accelerated  action.  In  other  words,  having  framed 
our  doctrine  of  the  cognitive  and  the  cognizable,  it 
will  then  remain  to  bring  the  former  systematically 
to  bear  upon  the  latter. 

This  next  work  of  applying  the  ultimate  philosophy 
may  be  projected  as  follows : — 

As  a  preliminary  labor,  there  should  be  a  Logical 
Partition  of  the  Sciences,  with  a  view  to  their  more 
systematic  culture.  The  arbitrary  divisions  and  as- 
sumptions which  now  prevail  among  them  not  only 
dismember  the  body  of  truth,  but  lead  to  ill-directed 
researches  and  strifes  of  words;  but  when  they  are 
cultivated  in  their  normal  order  and  with  reference  to 
their  ideal  unity,  their  growth  will  be  more  regular, 

5 


54  PHILOSOPHIA   ULTIMA. 

vigorous,  and  fruitful.  Now,  according  to  our  theory, 
their  normal  order  corresponds  to  that  of  the  inter- 
dependent phenomena  which  are  their  material;  and 
their  ideal  unity  results  from  two  opposite  modes 
of  knowing  or  explaining  those  phenomena,  ever 
tending  to  logical  union  in  a  third.  When,  therefore, 
we  have  thus  mapped  out  the  intellectual  domain  as 
it  lies  in  nature  itself  rather  than  in  our  crude  fancy, 
we  may  proceed  to  devise  three  sets  of  rules  for  the 
three  kinds  of  intellectual  labor  to  be  performed 
therein. 

The  first  will  consist  of  Axioms  of  Nomology,  or 
precepts  for  pursuing  and  perfecting  our  knowledge 
of  natural  laws.     They  will  be  of  various  classes: 

1.  Those  which  apply  to  nomological  science  in  gen- 
eral, the  philosophy  of  inductive  or  positive  research. 

2.  Those  which  apply  to  the  physical  sciences  in  par- 
ticular, as  mechanics,  chemistry,  and  biology,  in  both 
their  celestial  and  terrestrial  divisions.  3.  Those 
which  apply  to  the  metaphysical  sciences  in  partic- 
ular, as  psychology,  sociology,  and  theology,  in  both 
their  celestial  and  terrestrial  divisions.  This  part  of 
the  scientific  discipline,  when  complete,  would  include 
a  system  of  rules  for  connecting  every  class  of  facts 
with  their  laws. 

The  second  part  will  consist  of  Axioms  of  Etiology, 
or  precepts  for  pursumg  and  perfecting  our  knowledge 
of  causes.  They  also  will  be  of  various  classes:  1. 
Those  which  apply  to  aetiological  science  in  general, 


PniLOSOPHIA    ULTIMA.  55 

or  the  philosophy  of  both  specuhitivc  iind  exc'gctical 
research.  2.  Those  which  apply  to  the  pala^tiological 
sciences,  as  cosmology,  geology,  anthopology.  3. 
Those  which  apply  to  the  telastiological  sciences,  as 
soterology,  ecclesiology,  eschatology.  Tliis  part  ol' 
the  scientific  discipline,  when  complete,  would  include 
a  system  of  rules  for  connecting  every  class  of  f\icts 
with  their  causes,  both  first  and  final. 

The  third  part  will  consist  of  Axioms  of  Ontology^ 
or  precepts  for  pursuing  and  perfecting  our  knowl- 
edge of  both  laws  and  causes  as  combined  in  God. 
These,  of  course,  will  be  the  complement  of  the  two 
previous  systems  of  rules,  and  designed  to  support 
them  both  in  a  course  of  consistent  application 
throughout  the  border  fields  of  rational  and  revealed 
science.  They,  too,  will  be  of  various  classes  which 
are  here  only  named  in  connection  with  one  or  two 
examples.  1.  Axioms  which  apply  to  the  normal 
relations  of  reason  and  revelation;  such  as,  (1.)  The 
proper  interaction  of  reason  and  revelation  e\Qv  in- 
volves the  expansion  of  science  toward  omniscience. 
(2.)  As  we  ascend  the  scale  of  the  sciences,  the  need 
of  revelation  increases  while  that  of  reason  decreases. 
In  the  basic  science  of  astronomy,  reason  is  para- 
mount; in  the  summary  science  of  theology,  revela- 
tion is  paramount;  while  in  the  midway  science  of 
psychology,  the  two  are  equal.  (3.)  Throughout 
the  scale  of  the  sciences  they  complement  and  m\> 
port  each   other.      2.    Axioms   which    apply  to    the 


56  PHILOSOPHIA   ULTIMA. 

existing  relations  of  reason  and  revelation;  such  as, 
(1.)  Exegesis  and  induction  are  mutually  corrective, 
according  to  the  normal  right  of  either  to  ascendency 
in  any  common  sphere  of  research.  (2.)  Creeds  are 
mere  theories  to  the  philosopher;  theories  are  mere 
creeds  to  the  theologian;  and,  so  long  as  they  are  in 
conflict,  all  that  can  be  attempted  is  a  provisional 
reconciliation  by  exhibiting  the  problem  of  opinion. 
(3.)  To  whatever  extent  philosophical  and  theological 
opinions  modify  each  other,  and  the  technical  dialect 
in  which  they  speak,  the  language  of  scripture  only 
gains  rather  than  loses  in  veracity,  expressiveness, 
and  power.  3.  Axioms  which  apply  to  the  pros- 
pective relations  of  reason  and  revelation;  such  as, 
(1.)  The  law  of  their  historical  evolution  is  that  of 
decreasing  opposition  and  increasing  contribution  to 
each  other.  Not  only  do  discovered  facts,  in  every 
science,  already  both  require  and  uphold  revealed 
truths;  but  even  its  antagonistic  theories  are  only 
"oppositions  of  science,  falsely  so  called,"  and  des- 
tined, by  their  own  self-destroying  conflict,  to  sift  the 
true  from  the  false  and  blend  the  discovered  with  the 
revealed.  In  geology,  for  example,  we  now  have  the 
two  rival  theories  of  the  Catastrophists  and  the  Uni- 
formitarians,  one  of  which  would  leave  existing  inter- 
pretation undisturbed,  the  other  of  which  would  call 
for  its  modification,  while  both  can  only  issue  in  some 
new  illustration  of  the  great  truth,  that  "In  the 
beginning  God  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth." 


PIIILOSOPHIA    ULTIMA.  57 

(2.)  The  cumulative  evolution  of  the  sciences  in  the 
order  of  the  connected  phenomena  to  which  t\wy 
refer,  involves  a  cumulative  illustration  of  the  divine 
attributes  in  the  order  of  their  manifestation  and 
dignity,  beginning  with  the  astronomy  wliicli  dis- 
covers a  celestial  Mechanician,  infinite  in  power,  and 
ending  wdth  the  theology  which  reveals  a  celestial 
Father,  infinite  in  love.  (3.)  As  all  natural  plienom- 
ena  are  but  divine  manifestations,  their  beginnings, 
courses,  and  ends  must,  in  the  last  analysis,  be  re- 
ferred to  that  divine  reason  from  which  the  universe 
has  logically  proceeded,  and  through  which  alone  it 
can  be  logically  recapitulated.  This  third  and  last 
part  of  the  scientific  discipline,  in  order  to  be  com- 
plete, would  include  a  system  of  rules  for  connecting 
every  class  of  laws  and  causes  with  the  one  supreme 
cause  and  law  of  all  facts,  the  Author  and  Ruler  of 
the  universe. 

Thus  the  true  organon  of  knowledge,  whensoever 
attained,  wdll  rescue  the  cognitive  mind  from  those 
irregular  and  conflicting  researches  with  wliich  it  is 
now  blindly  sallying  over  the  field  of  tnitli.  and. 
everywhere  adjusting  the  system  of  thought  to  the 
system  of  things,  and  leading  the  finite  upon  the 
track  of  the  Infinite  Reason,  will  slowly  realize, 
through  endless  ages,  in  the  soul  of  the  creature,  for 
the  glory  of  the  Creator,  the  grand  ideal  of  the 
whole  creation. 

By  means  of  a  complete  organ  of  the  sciences,  the 


58  PHILOSOPHIA   ULTIMA. 

ultimate  philosophy  would  be  thoroughly  applied. 
And  the  discipline  of  the  human  intellect  would 
then  be  perfect.  Keason  will  have  become  a  fault- 
less instrument  of  research  w^hen  it  thus  moves  by  a 
trained  logic  as  well  as  with  a  true  aim.  Science 
will  have  grown  to  be  its  own  master  when  it  thus 
jxuides  as  well  as  knows  itself.  Let  this  second  work 
therefore  be  called  the  art  of  the  sciences. 

But  so  soon  as  we  imagine  such  a  scheme  of  axioms 
devised  and  employed  among  the  sciences,  we  shall 
see  that  the  tendency  will  be  not  merely  to  build 
them  up  into  an  ideal  system  as  for  philosophic  pas- 
time, but  to  effect  their  logical  organization,  practical 
equipment,  and  the  actual  endowing  of  mankind  with 
all  material  and  moral  as  well  as  intellectual  riches. 
Such  is  the  connection  between  theory  and  practice, 
science  and  art,  truth  and  goodness,  that  whenever 
the  whole  cognitive  shall  have  thoroughly  acted  upon 
the  whole  cognizable  there  must  issue  a  vast  and 
homogenous  body  of  knowledge,  fraught  with  incon- 
ceivable utility  and  grandeur.  In  other  words,  the 
science  of  the  sciences  and  the  art  of  the  sciences 
will  need  to  be  crowned  with  a  science  of  their  corre- 
sponding arts,  or  doctrine  of  perfect  knowledge,  as 
practically  applied.     (See  Appendix.) 

This  last  work  of  consummating  the  ultimate 
philosophy  may  be  projected  as  follows : — 

In  its  initiatory  stage  there  will  no  doubt  be  a 
clearer  and  more  general  apprehension  of  those  social 


PHILOSOPIIIA    ULTIMA.  59 

laws  by  which  science  or  exact  knowledge  becomes 
eiFective  in  moulding  human  opinions  and  institu- 
tions. So  long  as  the  artificial  organization  of  society 
proceeds  blindly,  its  action  must  be  abnormal  and 
wild ;  but  when  the  intellectual  and  moral  condi- 
tions of  true  order  and  progress  are  demonstrated, 
we  may  at  least  foresee,  if  not  actually  hasten,  the 
grand  issues  of  the  whole  human  development  in  its 
vital  connections  with  all  terrestrial  and  even  celes- 
tial influences. 

The  first  of  these  issues  may  be  termed  the 
Ultimate  Cyclopedia  of  the  Sciences,  All  previous 
organizations  of  the  body  of  knowledge  share  in  its 
existing  schismatic  and  fragmentary  state.  Instead 
of  building  the  temple  of  truth  after  the  model  of 
things,  they  exhibit  creation  as  but  a  disjointed  fiibric, 
wrought  out  of  the  crude  and  composite  material  of 
creature  fancy.  Instead  of  exactly  imaging  the  outer 
world  of  fact  into  the  inner  world  of  thought,  they 
show  it  only  in  dim  and  broken  reflection  as  marred 
by  conceit  and  error.  But  when  all  phenomena  are 
studied  in  their  actual  successions  and  coexistences, 
and  not  in  mere  detached  portions,  and  the  sciences 
are  partitioned  and  cultivated  accordingly,  as  an 
organic  whole,  then  will  the  chaos  which  the  uni- 
verse seems  to  the  human  mind  be  changing  to  the 
cosmos  which  it  is  to  the  divine  mind,  and  reason 
be  fairly  embarked  in  her  career  of  ever  nearing, 
thoudi  never  reaching,  that  height  of  infinite  kiiowl- 


60  I'lIILOSOPlIIA    ULTIMA. 

edge  from  whence,  by  means  of  lier  mechanics, 
chemistry,  and  biology,  she  could  review  and  fore- 
cast all  material  life,  whether  of  atoms  or  of  orbs, 
and,  by  means  of  her  psychology,  sociology,  and 
theology,  she  could  review  and  forecast  all  spiritual 
life,  whether  of  terrestrial  or  of  celestial  races.  "  Now 
we  see  through  a  glass  darkly,  but  then  face  to  face ; 
now  we  know  in  part,  but  when  that  which  is  perfect 
is  come,  that  which  is  in  part  shall  be  done  away." 

In  close  connection  with  this  issue  will  also  be  un- 
folded the  Ultimate  Cyclopedia  of  Arts.  At  present, 
anything  like  a  more  systematic  control  of  nature,  by 
means  of  a  more  systematic  knowledge  of  her  con- 
nected laws,  is  scarcely  thought  of  as  open  to  human 
aspiration.  As  the  sciences,  broken  and  jarring,  ex- 
tend only  to  detached  phenomena,  without  including 
their  vital  relations,  so  the  corresponding  arts,  or 
means  of  modifying  those  phenomena,  are  in  like 
manner  partial,  irregular,  and  conflicting.  The  frame 
of  nature  is  forced  to  work  but  in  piecemeal  for  her 
still  unskillful  master;  and  it  is  only  in  the  electric 
telegraph  that  we  have  any  hint  of  a  more  cosmical 
power.  But  when  the  sciences  are  logically  organ- 
ized, and  the  arts  begin  to  flow  from  them  as  foregone 
aims  rather  than  mere  incidental  trophies,  and  with 
concerted  action  furthering  each  other,  then  will  our 
increasing  knowledge  be  ever  yielding  increasing  con- 
trol of  all  surrounding  phenomena,  and  man  be  rising 
toward  the  predicted  dominion  over  creation.     The- 


PHILOSOPIIIA    ULTIMA.  61 

ology  will  be  giving  that  art  of  religion  by  wliich 
Providence  predominates  over  society,  and  sociology 
that  art  of  politics  b}^  which  society  predominates 
over  the  individual,  and  psychology  that  art  of 
ethics  by  which  mind  predominates  over  matter,  and 
biology,  chemistry,  and  mechanics,  those  arts  of  ter- 
restrial economy  by  which  the  whole  material  system 
is  wrought  anew  for  human  service  and  divine  glory. 
And  last  of  all,  as  the  grand  aggregate  result,  there 
will  issue  the  Ultimate  System  of  Socletfj.  Both  the 
sciences  and  the  arts  are  but  functions  of  society,  and 
by  their  degree  of  perfection  determine  its  state  and 
progress.  As  yet  the  most  advanced  civilization, 
racked  and  torn  by  conflicting  ideas  and  interests, 
only  reflects  the  existing  disorder  and  defectiveness  of 
knowledge  and  consequent  waste  and  turmoil  of  skill. 
The  whole  modern  organization  of  mankind  is  crude, 
forced,  and  heterogeneous,  though  already  an  im- 
mense advance  upon  that  of  antiquity.  But  when 
the  seried  sciences  shall  be  shedding  forth  their  seried 
arts,  and  all  human  societies  be  growing  together  in 
the  knowledge  and  the  mastery  of  their  own  pheno- 
mena, and  of  the  cosmical  phenomena  upon  wliicli 
they  act,  until  they  are  brought  into  harmony  with 
nature  and  with  God,  then  will  a  regenerate  race  be 
installed  as  the  living  head  of  the  whole  terrestrial 
organism,  and  the  reins  of  the  orlj  be  exultingly 
gathered  in  its  hands  as  it  careers  in  the  oh  nipic 
race  of  worlds. 


62  PHILOSOPHIA    ULTIMA. 

Then,  too,  may  even  the  celestial  sciences  begin  to 
blossom  with  celestial  arts  that  shall  knit  together, 
in  spiritual  sympathy,  all  celestial  races.  Terrene, 
solar,  and  stellar  influences,  wielded  by  human 
prowess  and  prayer,  may  unfold  the  commerce  of 
heaven,  the  telegraph  of  the  skies,  and  the  worship 
of  the  one  universal  Father,  until  the  ripe,  scient 
earth  echoes  back  the  anthem  that  erst  hailed  her 
novitiate,  when  "the  morning  stars  sang  together 
and  all  the  sons  of  God  shouted  for  joy." 

Thus,  in  the  consummation  of  the  ultimate  philoso- 
phy, will  be  involved  the  consummation  of  all  things 
earthly.  Science  will  then  have  triumphed  over 
error,  and  art  over  nature.  Reason  will  then  have 
unfolded  the  whole  riddle  of  the  world,  from  its 
genesis  to  its  apocalypse;  and  that  cosmic  ideal 
toward  which  the  Creator  has  been  moving  through 
mighty  epochs  of  creation,  from  the  primordial 
planetary  germ,  by  means  of  successive  strata,  florae, 
faunae,  and  human  nations  and  races,  will  at  length 
stand  forth  revealed  in  the  fullness  of  its  life  and 
glory. 

At  the  height  we  have  now  reached,  how  wide  the 
horizon !  how  grand  the  prospect !  As  from  a  lone  emi- 
nence of  faith,  where  the  whole  past  and  present  and 
future  of  our  race  is  spread  out  at  one  view,  we  look 
down  upon  that  divine  system  of  the  world  in  which 
the  end  is  known  from  the  beginning.  We  see  long 
ages  rolling  onward  ere  it  shall  all  be  fulfilled,  vast 


PHILOSOPHIA   ULTIMA.  68 

literatures  and  civilizations  shed  like  forest  leaves  in 
its  fulfilling,  and  unspeakable  glories  crowding  thick 
and  fast  to  its  fulfillment,  until,  blinded  by  the  vision, 
we  almost  wonder  that  mortal  may  gaze  and  live.  But 
we  wall  not  doubt  His  fatherly  goodness,  who,  having 
showai  unto  his  human  children  even  the  far-off  stars 
in  their  destined  courses  and  periods,  will  surely  deign 
not  less  that  they  should  scan  the  track  of  his  earthly 
promises,  and  give  them  some  Pisgah  where  they  may 
lie  down  and  die  content  that  other  generations  shall 
enter  into  that  for  which  they  have  toiled. 

And  hence  it  behooves  us  next  to  consider,  as  being 
our  part  in  this  ultimate  philosophy,  the  more  prac- 
tical questions  of  the  time,  the  scene,  and  the  mode 
of  its  inauguration. 

For  the  time  of  its  inauguration,  all  history  points 
to  the  present  age.  An  era,  so  fraught  wdth  marvels 
and  rife  in  great  movements,  might  well  be  crowned 
with  this  last  and  best  birth  of  time.  And  we  have 
only  to  review  the  past  and  survey  the  present  in 
order  to  see  that  what  could  not  hitherto,  may  at  last 
now  be  hopefully  attempted. 

It  could  not  have  been  undertaken  at  any  previous 
period.  The  two  great  reformations,  the  one  theo- 
logical and  the  other  philosophical,  of  which  Luther 
and  Bacon  were  the  leaders,  had  first  to  proceed  apart 
to  their  extremes,  and  so  develop  the  existing  need 
of  their  combination.  At  their  spring  and  while  in 
their  incipiency  neither  feared  or  craved  the  other. 


64  PIIILOSOPHIA    ULTIMA. 

Both  were  intent  only  upon  freeing  reason  from  its 
trannnels,  whether  ecclesiastical  or  scholastic,  and 
could  not  then  foresee  its  j^resent  license  or  discord,  or 
the  necessity  which  has  thus  arisen,  of  training  it  to 
study  science  itself,  with  the  same  directness,  patience, 
and  candor,  wherewith  they  trained  it  to  study  nature 
and  scripture. 

It  is  indeed  true,  that  in  advance  of  the  exigency, 
that  august  and  prescient  mind  which  planned  the 
Instauratio  Magna  would  seem  to  have  propounded 
the  very  task  which  is  now  imminent,  or  at  least  so 
much  of  it  as  relates  to  the  natural  sciences,  though 
with  no  real  expectation  of  seeing  it  then  accom- 
plished. "The  sixth  and  last  part  of  our  work,  to 
wdiich  all  the  rest  are  subservient,  is  to  lay  down  that 
philosophy  which  shall  flow  from  the  just,  pure,  and 
strict  inquiry  hitherto  proposed.  But  to  perfect  this 
is  beyond  both  our  abilities  and  our  hopes;  yet  we 
shall  lay  the  foundations  of  it  and  recommend  the 
superstructure  to  posterity."  And  it  is  now  easy  to 
see  that  the  "universal  and  complete  theory"  which 
with  just  forethought  he  pretended  not  to  offer,  could 
not  have  been  framed  or  even  attempted,  until  the 
sciences  should  have  reached  some  measure  of  perfec- 
tion, and  out  of  their  own  lack  of  consistency  and 
order  clamored  for  law  and  system. 

But  now  at  last  this  need  and  preparedness  for  the 
great  effort  have  arrived.  If  we  examine,  we  shall 
find  that  each  of  the  three  works  here  projected  as 


PIIILOSOPIIIA   ULTIMA.  65 

necessary  to  tlie  completion  of  philosophy  may  at 
least  be  begun,  if  not  pursued  to  a  good  degree  of  for- 
wardness. 

Have  we  not  already  the  materials  of  a  theory  or 
doctrine  of  perfect  knowledge?  The  map  of  the 
intellectual,  like  that  of  the  physical  globe,  is  almost 
complete,  with  scarcely  a  terra  incognita  to  be  ex- 
plored, and  philosophy  might  well  reach  her  ultima 
thule  in  conjunction  with  geography.  In  other  words, 
the  exact  limits  of  research  may  be  said  to  have  been 
ascertained  and  its  several  provinces  defined.  All  the 
sciences  at  least  have  a  name,  are  in  various  stages  of 
progress,  and  fast  coming  into  new  and  fruitful  rela- 
tions. Attempts  even  have  been  made  to  discover 
and  impose  upon  them  that  system  to  which  they 
are  presumed  to  be  tending.  And  if  such  forward 
minds  have  hitherto  failed,  it  has  been  partly  because 
it  is  only  through  repeated  failures  we  can  pass  to 
success,  and  also  because  they  have  not  brought  to 
their  task  that  catholicity,  candor,  and  patience 
which  are  the  cardinal  virtues  of  the  philoso})hy 
they  espouse,  but  have  allowed  some  metaphysical  or 
theological  prejudice  to  hinder  a  just  induction,  and 
vainly  tried  to  force  upon  science,  as  the  old  scholas- 
tics tried  to  force  upon  nature  and  scripture,  some 
partial  and  foregone  theory.  They  have  either  ex- 
scinded the  knowledge  which  has  been  revealed  or  the 
knowledge  which  has  been  discovered,  and  .^o  an- 
nounced  pretended   laws   of   scientific   development 


66  PHILOSOPHIA   ULTIMA. 

which  both  history  and  reason  falsify.  But  the  very 
fact  that  efforts  in  this  direction  are  put  forth,  and 
that  even  these  crude,  tentative  hypotheses  have 
yielded  such  brilliant  results,  augurs  the  full  success 
that  is  at  hand.  After  long  ages  of  philosophical 
discipline  and  the  accumulation  of  a  mass  of  sciences 
extending  to  every  class  of  phenomena,  what  now 
remains  but  that  the  inductive  spirit  should  return 
upon  its  own  intellectual  product,  in  search  of  that 
sublime  theory  of  cognition  which  is  to  be  its  crown- 
ing triumph,  and  at  length  set  forth  as  the  matured 
reason  of  the  race  and  the  destined  apex  of  the  pyr- 
amid of  knowledge? 

Have  we  not  also,  in  large  measure,  the  means  of 
framing  an  organ  of  perfect  knowledge?  The  cogni- 
tive mind,  now  grown  experienced  in  all  modes  of 
research,  has  already  garnered  a  store  of  principles 
and  precedents  wherewith  to  enter  intelligently  and 
authoritatively  the  more  imperfect  sciences,  and  pre- 
clude the  waste  and  error  and  confusion  which  marked 
its  infancy.  Master  builders  in  the  art  of  constructing 
science,  one  after  another,  have  tried  their  hand  upon 
the  model,  and  given  well-tested  rules  for  the  actual 
building.  In  inductive  philosophy  we  have  a  line 
extending  from  Bacon  to  Comte,  and  in  speculative 
philosophy,  another  from  Kant  to  Hegel;  while  the 
very  extreme  into  which  the  two  latest  thinkers  have 
pushed  their  respective  methods  has  already  created 
the  need  of  that  third  and  last  philosophy  which 


PHILOSOPHIA   ULTIMA.  67 

shall  mediate  between  them,  and  lead  them  back  from 
their  errant  courses  within  the  just  and  safe  limits 
which  they  impose  upon  each  other.  Thougli  our 
philosophical  literature  is  as  yet  wanting  in  this 
latter  department  of  sciential  thought,  and  there 
exists  scarcely  a  treatise  which  can  command  the 
equal  respect  of  both  sects  of  disciples,  those  of 
reason  and  those  of  revelation,  yet  there  is  a  craving 
among  each  after  the  laws  of  their  latent  affinity  and 
the  terms  of  their  ultimate  agreement.  Now  that  so 
much  of  thorough  drill  has  been  infused  among  the 
different  votaries  of  science,  who  doubts  but  that  the 
logical  spirit  shall  soon  enter  also  their  border  feuds, 
and  at  length  devise  and  publish  those  perfect  canons 
of  research  by  which  the  whole  host  of  seekers  for 
truth  shall  be  marshalled  as  one  mighty  phalanx  for 
the  final  career  of  eternal  progression? 

And  may  we  not  even  begin  to  forecast  the  actual 
scheme  and  issue  of  perfect  knowledge?  Although 
that  matured  humanity  which  must  result  from 
matured  intelligence  has  hitherto  been  aspired  after 
only  by  elect  minds,  as  but  a  vague  ideal,  and  with 
faint  presentiment;  yet  now,  at  last,  the  prospect 
grows  clearer  and  surer  and  thrills  even  the  popular 
heart.  By  a  few,  at  least,  the  vital  connection  be- 
tween society  and  science  is  seen  to  insure  the  per- 
fection of  the  one  in  that  of  the  other.  And  as  we 
feel  that  pulse  of  humanity  which  ever  beats  on- 
ward, and  survey  the  wreck  of  systems  in  which  Ibiid 


68  PHILOSOPHIA   ULTIMA. 

visionaries  have  sought  some  airy  tower  of  prospect, 
we  can  but  devoutly  hail,  even  if  still  afar  off,  the 
dawn  of  that  era  which  the  seers  and  saints  and 
sages  of  all  time  have  longed  to  see;  and,  entering 
with  new  joyfulness  into  their  sacred  prescience  and 
prayer,  proceed  to  labor  as  well  as  yearn  for  the 
great  consummation. 

Thus  have  we  been  brought  to  that  fullness  of 
time  when  Providence  seems  waiting  to  give  the 
reins  of  the  world  to  ripe  reason,  and  is  summoning 
us  to  enter  with  faith  and  hope  upon  the  impending 
task. 

For  the  scene  of  its  inauguration,  philanthropy 
selects  the  western  hemisphere.  A  clime  so  strangely 
hidden  for  ages  from  mankind,  would  seem  but  the 
destined  theater  of  these  later  acts  of  history.  And 
we  have  but  to  scan  the  map  of  the  world  to  find 
that  what  could  not  elsewhere  may  here  be  practi- 
cally initiated. 

It  could  not  originate  in  the  eastern  hemisphere. 
The  two  diverse  civilizations — the  oriental  and  occi- 
dental— representing  the  practical  issues  of  the  two 
diverse  philosophies — the  intuitional  and  the  logical — 
having  proceeded  apart  for  six  thousand  years  on 
opposite  sides  of  the  globe,  must  meet  as  in  completed 
circuit  on  some  virgin  soil  and  common  ground  ere 
their  joint  mission  can  be  accomplished.  While  still 
in  their  native  seats  neither  can  thoroughly  sift  and 
appropriate  the  other.     Both  are  there  hampered  by 


PHILOSOPIIIA    ULTIMA.  (;0 

inveterate  prejudices  and  contracted  relations,  and 
must  continue  to  have  something  of  extravagance  in 
their  development;  the  one  toward  mysticism,  and 
the  other  toward  skepticism;  until  thrown  together 
on  a  new  arena  where  they  can  find  ampler  scope  and 
freer  action. 

It  need  not,  indeed,  be  denied  that  in  European 
civilization  the  eastern  and  the  western  mind,  the 
religious  and  the  scientific  spirit,  have  already  for 
eighteen  centuries  been  combined;  but  this  very 
combination  has  at  length  only  shown  an  exigency 
which  it  cannot  meet,  and  materials  which  it  cannot 
use  upon  its  own  soil.  The  rigid  social,  national, 
and  poUtical  distinctions  of  the  Old  World,  to  say 
nothing  of  its  meager  physical  location  and  struc- 
ture, preclude  that  collection  and  fusion  of  all  the 
elements  of  humanity  which  is  to  be  the  work  of 
the  true  cosmopolite  philosophy. 

But  in  this  western  hemisphere  not  only  are  such 
elements  far  more  varied  and  abundant,  but  the  fiicil- 
ity  for  their  recomposition  is  perfect.  The  Ameri- 
can geography,  genealogy,  politics,  and  religion  are 
simply  unparalleled,  either  in  ancient  or  in  modern 
civilization,  and  together  form  an  aggregate  of  all 
that  is  peculiar  to  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa.  Such  a 
medley  of  climates,  of  races,  of  institutions,  of  creeds 
and  systems,  fusing  under  one  political  system,  affords 
materials  for  a  philosophy  which  cannot  but  be  final, 

6 


70  PHILOSOPHIA   ULTIMA. 

and,  by  its  projection  on  a  grander  scale  and  with 
fuller  conditions  of  all  the  time-worn  issues  of  his- 
tory, shows  that  here,  if  anywhere,  the  whole  cos- 
mical  problem  is  at  length  to  be  solved.  Who  that 
surveys  this  wide  intellectual  and  social  anarchy  and 
the  swift  and  intense  passions  pervading  it,  but  must 
feel  that,  sooner  or  later,  the  plastic  spirit  of  human 
opinion  which,  ever  strengthening  with  the  growth  of 
reason,  has  wTOught  through  all  the  past,  disorgan- 
izing and  reorganizing  successive  civilizations,  must 
at  last  educe  order  from  this  chaos,  and  mould  the 
ideal  reign  of  truth  and  virtue? 

Thus  has  Providence  already  opened  and  garnished 
the  stage  whereon  to  unfold  that  consummate  system, 
which,  as  it  is  to  be  the  flower  of  all  thought  and 
fruit  of  all  climes  and  ages,  can  be  called  after  no 
name,  however  worthy,  and  claimed  by  no  people, 
however  illustrious. 

For  the  mode  of  its  inauguration,  philosophy  ordains 
the  academic  curriculum.  The  educational  system, 
being  the  primal  fount  of  knowledge  and  influence, 
affords  the  normal  method  of  turning  the  grand  ideal 
into  a  reality.  And  but  a  glance  at  the  existing 
social  structure  will  show  that  it  alone  is  competent 
to  the  task. 

There  is  an  obvious  unfitness  in  all  other  agencies. 
The  professions  and  the  press,  being  distributors 
rather  than  contributors  of  new  ideas,  and  reflectors 


PHILOSOPHIA   ULTIMA.  71 

rather  than  manufacturers  of  opinion,  as  w  ell  as  liabk' 
to  be  swayed  by  disturbing  interests  and  passions,  are 
too  low  down  in  the  scale  of  social  influence  to  reach 
the  springs  of  existing  evils.  A  movement  which  is 
to  cure  them  by  harmonizing  philosophy  and  theology, 
must  originate  beyond  the  sphere  of  popular  preju- 
dice, in  that  quiet  circle  of  thinkers  and  scholars 
where  truth  is  prized  for  her  own  sake,  and  sought 
with  the  zeal  of  the  votary.  The  tactics  and  tlio 
drill  of  this  warfare  are  not  to  be  learned  amid  the 
smoke  of  battle,  by  the  mere  tyros  and  bigots  who 
are  in  such  haste  to  practice  them,  but  nmst  be 
brought  thither  by  those  who  have  been  schooled 
into  philosophic  tastes  and  habits. 

This  at  least,  it  may  be  safely  affirmed,  is  the 
judgment  of  intelligent  conservatives,  who  are  in  the 
field  and  acquainted  with  its  wants.  There  is  a 
growing  feeling  throughout  the  educated  classes  that 
the  crisis  has  become  too  grave  to  be  continued  as  a 
mere  topic  of  periodical  review  or  theme  of  profes- 
sional declamation.  What  pastor,  lawyer,  or  physi- 
cian, if  he  has  the  time  or  taste,  feels  competent  to 
grapple  with  the  great  question  in  any  of  its  branches  ? 
He  encounters  at  once  the  suspicion  of  having  got 
beyond  his  province,  and  is  sure  of  the  contempt  of 
one  or  both  parties,  if  only  because  of  his  su[)p()se(l 
unfitness  and  prejudic(\  The  work  has  plainly 
reached  the  importance  of  a  special  cause,  calling  for 


72  PHILOSOPHIA   ULTIMA. 

special  qualifications  and  the  devising  of  new  appli- 
ances, more  fixed  and  organic  than  any  now  in  use. 

It  should  not  indeed  be  overlooked,  that  this 
craving  has  already  been  long  expressing  itself  in  a 
rich  and  growing  literature,  partly  in  the  interest  of 
philosophy,  and  partly  in  the  interest  of  theology, 
and  sometimes  by  the  institution  of  prize-essays 
and  lectureships,  which  are  directly  aimed  at  the 
work  of  their  conciliation;  but  whatever  success 
has  hitherto  attended  such  scattered  and  irregular 
efforts  only  lights  the  way  to  others  that  may  be 
more  direct,  lasting,  and  effective. 

It  is  by  means  of  academic  training  alone  that  the 
whole  social  organism  can  be  reached  and  cured  of  its 
present  vicious  and  morbid  action.  The  true  univer- 
sity is  its  brain,  receiving  from  professorships  and 
distributing  through  the  professions  ideas  that  rule 
the  masses;  and  according  as  it  is  sophisticated  or 
purified  will  the  whole  body  be  either  depraved  or 
ennobled.  In  other  words,  we  have  only  to  recur  to 
the  social  evils  described  as  the  issue  of  the  great 
schism  in  modern  philosophy,  to  see  that  they  can 
only  be  met  educationally,  by  special  courses  of  study 
and  instruction,  at  the  seats  of  culture  where  they 
stealthily  and  unwittingly  originate  and  are  often 
unconsciously  harbored. 

It  is  there  that  we  must  seek  the  unity  of  science. 
She  gathers  thither  her  votaries  to  endow  them  with 


riiiLosoPTiiA  rLTi>rA.  73 

her  riches,  and  assign  them  their  tasks,  and  so  long  as 
she  presents  but  a  divided  front  and  ranges  them  in 
opposite  ranks,  must  the  breach  between  tlieni  be 
only  widened;  l)ut  in  proportion  as  botli  the  rational 
and  the  revealed  sciences  are  studied  in  tlieir  actual 
connections,  and  brought  into  some  logical  relation- 
ship; as  fast  as  the  former  are  made  to  illustrate  the 
character,  policy,  and  purposes  of  the  God  of  revelation 
and  the  latter  are  established  in  harmony  with  all 
the  discoveries  of  reason,  will  they  be  found  to  be  Init 
branches  from  one  root  of  knowledge,  living  and 
growing  in  the  truth. 

It  is  there,  also,  we  must  seek  the  catholicity  of 
learning.  From  thence  the  youthful  mind,  while 
forming  its  intellectual  habits,  and  ere  it  has  been 
narrowed  by  professional  prejudice,  receives  its  life- 
long bias;  and  only  by  diverting  it  from  its  present 
tendencies  toward  either  skepticism  or  bigotr}^,  can 
the  whole  educated  class  be  imbued  with  a  spirit  of 
large  and  generous  culture. 

And  it  is  there,  too,  we  must  seek  a  salutary  influ- 
ence upon  all  the  great  interests  of  religion,  politics, 
and  art.  Let  the  salt  of  truth  be  cast  into  these 
living  fountains,  and  the  stream  of  intellectual  and 
moral  corruption  will  be  cleansed;  the  evils  of  the 
church,  the  state,  and  the  life  will  be  cured;  and  a 
current  of  new  and  vitalizing  ideas  poured  throuLilioiit 
the  whole  social  body.     Though  now  all  surrounding 


74  PHILOSOPHIA    ULTIMA. 

civilization  seems  based  in  error  and  ignorance  and 
swayed  by  conflicting  o^Dinions  and  prejudices,  still  we 
need  not  fear  but  that  the  spirit  of  truth,  training  and 
marshalling  her  votaries  in  such  sequestered  haunts 
of  culture,  shall  yet  lead  them  forth  as  a  disciplined 
host,  even  into  the  thick  of  this  great  conflict,  and 
there  proclaim  her  destined  rule  of  order,  law,  and 
love. 

The  practical  objection  may  here  be  raised  that  an 
academic  field,  so  wide  and  rich,  would  demand  an 
amount  of  research  and  erudition  in  the  teacher,  and 
a  degree  of  maturity  and  scholarship  in  the  pupil, 
which  are  quite  impossible. 

To  the  former  part  of  the  objection  it  is  enough  to 
reply:  1st.  That  the  aim  need  not  be  to  traverse  the 
two  great  divisions  of  knowledge  throughout  their 
whole  extent,  but  merely  that  intersected  portion  of 
them  where  they  are  involved  in  a  kind  of  border 
warfare.  2d.  That  into  this  common  field  it  would 
be  needful  to  enter  only  with  a  resume  of  established 
truths  and  jDi'inciples,  rather  than  with  special  re- 
searches and  acquisitions.  3d.  That  to  master  the 
abstract  part  of  any  of  the  sciences,  what  may  be 
termed  their  philosophy  or  logic,  does  not  require 
learning  so  much  as  thought  and  study.  4th.  That 
those  very  faculties  of  abstraction,  generalization,  and 
comparison  which  w^ould  qualify  for  such  a  task, 
would  almost  disqualify  for  any  other,  and  be  hin- 


PHILOSOPHIA   ULTIMA.  75 

dered  rather  than  stimulated  by  minute  investigations. 
There  are,  moreover,  abundant  helps  to  the  work  to 
be  found  in  standard  treatises  of  authority  with 
both  schools,  in  compends  of  their  several  attainments, 
and  in  a  current  literature,  teeming  with  the  richest 
and  most  varied  contributions. 

To  the  latter  part  of  the  objection  it  may  ])e  re- 
plied :  1st.  That  it  enters  into  the  scope  of  all 
academic  life  to  increase  as  well  as  diffuse  the  existing 
stock  of  knowledge.  2d.  That  in  fulfilHng  this  latter 
aim,  there  is  always  a  vast  amount  of  instruction 
which  is  simply  stored  rather  than  at  once  digested 
in  the  mind  of  a  student.  3d.  That  the  efficiency 
of  such  teaching  would,  after  all,  depend  upon  the 
stage  in  the  curriculum  at  which  it  should  be  intro- 
duced, and  the  personal  enthusiasm  with  which  on 
both  sides  it  is  conducted. 

We  are  thus  led  next  to  inquire  as  to  the  particular 
form  which  such  academic  training  should  assume,  or 
the  best  method  of  incorporating  it  in  existing  systems 
of  education. 

And  here  the  general  principle  is  obvious,  that  it 
belongs  to  the  more  advanced  stages  of  pupilage,  and 
should  accompany  or  follow  special  training  in  the  two 
departments  it  aims  to  unite.  It  could  only,  in  order 
to  be  directly  effective,  come  after  a  gymnastic  or  siil)- 
graduate  course,  and  would  defeat  its  own  aim  if 
addressed  to  immature  and  unfurnished  minds. 


76  PHILOSOPIIIA    ULTIMA. 

According  to  the  theory  of  the  true  university,  it 
would  be  the  proper  supplement  or  complement  of 
the  three  faculties  of  law,  medicine,  and  theology, 
and  might  appear  among  them  in  the  form  of  a  sum- 
mary professorship,  designed  to  take  the  results  of 
other  professorships,  and,  after  recombining  them, 
transmit  them  through  the  professions  into  the 
sphere  of  practice.  Such  a  device  would  not  only 
act  as  a  fixed,  aggregating  center  of  those  border 
topics  by  which  the  professions  are  logically  joined 
together,  fostering  the  commerce  of  ideas  among 
them,  though  without  hindering  that  division  of 
labor  in  which  they  thrive,  but  it  would  also,  by  its 
bearing  upon  all  contemporary  intellectual  move- 
ments, remain  as  a  watch-tower  and  bulwark  of 
truth  on  the  field  of  error. 

If  the  theory  seem  somewhat  visionary  as  applied 
to  our  American  system,  this  may  only  serve  to  show 
at  once  our  danger  and  remedy.  There  could  not,  in 
fact,  be  more  striking  proof  of  our  need,  motive,  and 
opportunity  for  the  great  reconciliation,  than  is 
yielded  by  the  history  and  present  state  of  the  aca- 
demic curriculum.  That  schism,  which  in  the  Euro- 
pean universities  has  issued  in  no  outward  dissocia- 
tion of  the  band  of  scholars,  has  spread  through  our 
whole  scheme  of  education  as  a  visible  breach,  until 
at  last  both  philosophy  and  theology  seem  to  have 
lost  their  normal  rank  and  power,  and  the  very  words 


PHILOSOnilA    ULTIMA.  77 

are  turned  by  their  respective  followers  against  each 
other  with  something  of  suspicion.  We  have  two 
classes  of  institutions — the  secular  and  the  sacred, 
the  civil  and  the  ecclesiastical;  and  in  both  tlie  work 
of  disruption  has  been  going  forward.  Theology  has 
been  driven  from  the  former  by  the  gradual  ascend- 
ency of  the  classics  or  mathematics  over  the  old 
metaphysics  with  which  it  was  once  associated;  and 
philosophy  has  been  driven  from  the  latter  by  the 
degradation  of  the  study  of  divinity  to  a  mere  profes- 
sional and  sectarian  training  of  the  clergy. 

And  hence  the  first  question  to  be  met  in  attempt- 
ing their  educational  fusion  is  as  to  wdiich  party  the 
initiative  should  be  given;  wdiether  the  movement 
should  come  from  the  theological  or  from  the  philo- 
sophical side,  in  the  interest  of  religion  or  of  science, 
as  an  ecclesiastical  or  as  a  catholic  effort.  The  whole 
effect  of  such  academic  study  will  plainly  be  modified 
according  as  one  or  the  other  of  these  points  of  de- 
parture is  taken. 

In  a  purely  theological  course,  it  would  appear  as  a 
branch  of  apologetics  or  polemics ;  and  the  aim  would 
be  not  merely  to  uphold  the  general  authority  of 
scripture,  but  also  of  some  23articular  creed  or  confes- 
sion drawn  from  scripture  in  its  contact  and  conflict 
with  the  human  sciences.  And  this  chiefly  as  a  kind 
of  armor  and  drill,  for  the  battle  with  heresy  and  in- 
fidelity. 


78  PPIILOSOPHIA   ULTIMA. 

In  a  purely  philosophical  course,  it  would  appear 
as  a  branch  of  logic  or  metaphysics;  and  the  aim 
would  be,  ignoring  all  creeds  and  sects,  and  placing 
the  revealed  on  a  footing  with  the  rational  sciences, 
to  define  and  defend  the  prerogatives  of  each  in  its 
own  domain,  and  to  exhibit  their  joint  product  under 
a  scientific  rather  than  a  practical  aspect,  and  in  its 
due  place  and  connections  in  the  general  body  of 
learning. 

In  favor  of  the  latter  as  compared  with  the  former, 
several  reasons  may  be  urged. 

1.  It  is  the  more  natural  and  reasonable  method. 
A  work  of  mediation  involves  mutual  concession ;  and 
if  this  great  movement  must  be  initiated  at  either  ex- 
treme, it  has  a  clear  right  to  come  from  the  scientific 
side,  where  it  originated,  and  should  be  met  and 
welcomed.  It  is  in  fact  a  concession  which  we  not 
only  can  afford  to  make  but  must  make,  that  revealed 
truths  are  as  susceptible  as  natural  truths  of  rational 
support  and  confirmation,  and  may  also  be  safely 
taught  without  regard  to  their  practical  applica- 
tions, or  to  the  transcendent  interests  they  involve, 
and  in  entire  freedom  from  all  prejudice,  as  pure  mat- 
ters of  abstract  rather  than  of  applied  science.  If 
the  great  fundamental  tenet  of  inspiration  cannot 
base  itself  in  scientific  discovery,  but  is  doomed  to  be 
steadily  undermined,  then  the  whole  superstructure 
of  the  revealed  sciences  must  crumble  with  it  into 


PniLOSOPHIA    ULTIMA.  79 

ruins,  as  mere  superstition  and  bigotry.  While  we 
are  unwilling  that  savans  should  force  their  theories 
upon  us  as  creeds,  we  must  permit  them  to  treat  our 
creeds  as  theories  until  found  consistent  with  science. 
We  need  not  fear,  that  practically  and  personally  the 
one  party  will  be  any  the  less  moral,  religious,  and 
orthodox,  or  the  other  any  the  less  learned,  humane, 
and  philosophical,  on  account  of  such  a  problematical 
state  of  their  relations. 

So  long,  indeed,  as  theology,  in  a  course  of  educa- 
tion, is  forced  into  any  warlike  bearing,  offensive  or 
defensive,  apologetic  or  polemic,  even  her  own  inter- 
ests may  be  damaged;  but  when  she  is  allowed  her 
due  place  among  the  sciences,  as  alike  entering  with 
them  all  into  the  training  of  an  accomplished  scholar, 
and  it  is  made  the  recognized  vocation  of  both  teacher 
and  pupil  to  address  themselves  to  her  lessons  with 
philosophic  candor  and  conscientious  enthusiasm, 
truth  will  at  least  be  in  the  way  of  gaining  the 
homage  of  reason,  and  from  the  first  have  the  van- 
tage over  error. 

2.  It  would  reach  a  larger  and  more  varied  mass 
of  the  forming  mind  of  society.  Instead  of  being 
confined  to  one  calling,  it  would  include  candidates 
for  all  the  three  learned  professions,  who,  viewed  re- 
spectively as  votaries  of  physical,  metapliysical,  and 
theological  science,  are  the  real  parties  first  interested 
in  the  reconciliation,  and  by  their  presence  together 


80  PIIILOSOPIITA    ULTIMA. 

in  the  same  audience  might  yield  a  wholesome  stimulus 
and  check  upon  both  professor  and  student. 

3.  It  would  be  preventive,  rather  simply  remedial, 
as  to  existing  social  perils.  However  desirable  it  may 
be  to  equip  the  church  with  new  apologetic  appli- 
ances in  view  of  modern  scientific  skepticism,  yet 
these  after  all  would  not  reach  the  evil  at  its  hidden 
springs.  It  has  its  origin  in  the  very  methods,  habits, 
and  acquirements  of  science,  and  by  means  of  these 
alone  can  be  mastered  and  corrected. 

4.  It  would  have  the  high  character  and  even 
the  impressive  appearance  of  an  effort  to  follow  the 
revolted  sciences  into  their  own  haunts  of  estrange- 
ment and  error  and  win  them  back  again  by  their 
own  logic  and  laws.  It  would  be  leading  forth  the 
young  and  eager  thought  of  the  time  on  a  new  mis- 
sion of  truth  and  love,  rather  than  in  the  old  and 
crooked  ways  of  prejudice  and  passion.  What  are 
most  of  the  existing  treatises  or  even  professorships 
put  forth  in  the  interest  of  theology,  as  viewed  by 
her  foes,  but  weak  confessions  that  she  is  on  the 
defensive,  and  base  signals  of  defeat?  It  is  not  by 
polemics,  apologies,  or  evidences,  that  she  will  ever 
resume  her  rightful  dominion  in  the  seats  of  learning. 
It  is  not  by  any  sacred  sophistry  that  she  is  to  con- 
vince the  disciples  of  reason,  or  with  mere  dogmatic 
assertion  that  she  can  reclaim  the  homage  of  phi- 
losophy.    Science,  like  nature,  can  only  be  controlled 


PIIILOSOrillA    ULTIMA.  81 

through  a  knowledge  of  lier  huvs.  These  oiiee  round 
and  imposed,  she  will  prove  no  wayAvard  seeker  of 
the  truth,  but  as  her  Eastern  sages  once  read  a  gospel 
in  the  stars,  will  come  by  her  own  researches  to  the 
manifested  God,  and  worship  him  with  fair  and  costly 
art. 

But  from  whichever  side,  or  at  whatever  point  of 
the  academic  system,  the  work  of  affiliation  shall 
proceed,  as  it  advances  it  cannot  but  be  met  with  a 
wdde  and  hearty  welcome.  He  has  but  illy  scanned 
the  present  state  of  learning  Avho  takes  the  wordy 
strife  of  mere  bigots  and  savans  as  a  fair  reflection  of 
the  general  mind  upon  the  question.  There  runs 
through  the  catholic  thought  of  the  age,  however 
seldom  expressed,  a  deep  undertone  of  sadness  and 
misgiving  rather  than  of  mutual  anger  and  defiance. 
True  philosophy  takes  no  delight  in  this  sore  feud, 
w^iich  has  rent  the  body  of  her  disciples  in  twain, 
but  in  their  midst  still  secretly  yearns  for  a  just  re- 
conciliation. And  when  once  any  movement  shall 
have  gone  forth  among  them  that  shall  seem  to  com- 
mand them  with  a  voice  of  reason  and  love,  it  nuist 
sooner  or  later  be  hailed  with  joy,  however  obscure 
and  feeble  may  have  been  its  beginnings. 

Thus  has  Providence  prepared  the  soil,  as  well  as 
disclosed  the  field,  and  sifted  the  seed  for  a  mighty 
harvest  of  truth,  in  which  we  may  be  the  sowers  and 
the  latest  posterity  the  reapers.     A  great  work  may 


82  PHILOSOPHIA   ULTIMA. 

at  least  be  commeuced  by  us :  the  time  is  at  hand ; 
the  scene  is  ready;  and  the  mode  is  obvious.  In 
these  last  days  and  at  these  ends  of  the  earth,  we 
have  the  means  not  merely  of  projecting,  but  also 
of  inaugurating  that  scheme  of  perfect  knowledge 
through  which  the  dissevered  hosts  of  philosophy  are 
to  be  thoroughly  organized,  and  at  length  science 
matured,  art  perfected,  society  renewed,  and  the 
whole  world  filled  with  a  glory  of  which  it  is  not 
possible  now  to  conceive. 


Here  let  us  rest  in  this  difficult  ascent  of  thought 
which  we  have  climbed.  Though  the  way  may  have 
seemed  uncertain  and  tedious,  yet  the  prospect  gained 
is  sure.  That  which  can  now  only  be  called  the  ulti- 
mate philosophy  may  rise  under  another  name  and  in 
other  ways;  but  whenever,  wherever,  and  however 
inaugurated,  it  is  itself  inevitable.  Every  species  of 
pledge,  the  word  of  God,  the  law  of  facts,  and  the 
voice  of  reason,  combine  to  proclaim  it.  It  is  that 
perfect  system  of  knowledge  and  of  society  which 
both  logically  and  providentially  results  from  the 
whole  previous  development  of  humanity.  It  is  the 
goal  of  history,  seen  with  the  eyes  of  prophecy  and 
philosophy,  and  yearned  after  by  the  heart  of  phi- 
lanthropy. It  is  the  millennium  projected  upon 
rational  sequence  as  well  as  divine  decree;  and  could 


PlIILOSOPIIIA   ULTIMA.  83 

it  fail  to  come  to  pass,  it  would  not  simply  ].)e  as  if  a 
great  human  hope  had  perished,  Ijut  as  if  the  divine 
reason  had  falsified  its  own  premises,  laid  through  all 
the  past,  and  left  the  problem  of  the  world  unsolved. 
Astronomers  tell  us  that  were  this  material  globe  to 
reel  from  its  orbit,  it  could  only  be  by  a  miracle,  sus- 
pending the  very  laws  of  mathematics;  but  how  much 
less  conceivable  that  the  moral  world  should  ever 
recoil  in  mid-progress  and  the  whole  work  of  time 
become  a  meaningless  fragment!  The  flower  of  the 
planetary  life,  rooted  in  extinct  marvels  and  blooming 
through  long  ages  of  sin  and  sorrow^,  will  not  thus  be 
blighted  at  its  budding.  The  fairest  ideal  that  lives 
in  divine  and  human  fiincy  will  not  thus  be  turned  to 
naught. 

Behold  then  at  one  glance  the  issue  to  which  we 
are  come.  The  summary  want  of  the  age  is  that  last 
philosophy  into  which  shall  have  been  sifted  all  other 
philosophy,  which  shall  be  at  once  catholic  and  eclec- 
tic, which  shall  be  the  joint  growth  and  fruit  of 
reason  and  faith,  and  which  shall  shed  forth,  through 
every  walk  of  research,  the  blended  light  of  discovery 
and  revelation ;  a  j^hilosophy  which  shall  be  no  crude 
aggregate  of  decaying  systems  and  doctrines,  but  their 
distilled  issue  and  living  effect,  and  which  shall  not 
have  sprung,  full-born,  from  any  one  mind  or  people, 
but  mature  as  the  common  work  and  reward  of  all ;  a 
philosophy  which,  proceeding  upon  the  unity  of  truth. 


84  PHILOSOPIIIA   ULTIMA. 

shall  establish  the  harmony  of  knowledge  through  the 
intelligent  concurrence  of  the  human  with  the  divine 
intellect,  and  the  rational  subjection  of  the  finite  to  the 
Infinite  reason;  a  philosophy,  too,  which  shall  be  as 
beneficent  as  it  is  sacred,  which,  in  the  act  of  healing 
the  schisms  of  truth,  shall  also  heal  the  sects  of  the 
school,  of  the  church,  and  of  the  state,  and  while  re- 
generating human  art,  both  material  and  moral,  shall 
at  length  regenerate  human  society ;  a  philosophy,  in 
a  word,  which  shall  be  the  providential  means  of  sub- 
jecting the  earth  to  man  and  man  to  God,  by  grouping 
the  sciences,  with  their  fruits  and  trophies,  at  the  feet 
of  Omniscience,  and  there  converging  and  displaying 
all  laws  and  causes  in  God,  the  cause  of  causes  and 
law  of  laws,  of  whom  are  all  things  and  in  whom  all 
things  consist;  to  whom  alone  be  glory. 


APPEiS'DIX. 


f  wjiTt  ol  ilu  MWmxk  ^^hilo.^ophy, 


PROLEGOMENA. 


The  existing  anarchy  of  the  sciences  consequent  upon  the  schism 
between  reason  and  revelation  :  its  historical  origin,  progress, 
extent  and  evils. 

The  question  of  a  logical  affiliation  of  reason  and  revelation, 
and  consequent  logical  organization  of  the  mass  of  knowl- 
edge. 

The  great  interests  involved  in  the  question. 

Present  state  of  opinion  and  parties  upon  the  question: 

1.  The  Extremists,  both  theologians  and  philosophers. 

2.  The  Indififerentists,  "  " 

3.  The  Impatients,  "  " 

4.  The  Despondents,  "  " 

Need  and  prospects  of  the  Ultimate  Philosophy  :  its  idea,  utility, 
rise  and  growth,  and  method.  Three  general  works  or 
efforts  included  in  its  project. 

PART  I.— SCIENCE  OF  THE  SCIENCES. 

1.  EXPURGATION  OF  THE  SCIENCES. 

Misconceptions  as  to  the  origin,  value,  and  dignity  of  science. 
Of  science  as  the  function  of  the  social  or  collective  mind. 
Of  science  as  distinguished  from  ordinary  or  popular  knowl- 
edge. 

Of  science  as  distinguished  from  art. 

Of  science  as  distinguished  from  philosophy. 

8  (89) 


90  PHILOSOPniA   ULTIMA. 

Its  essential  unity  amid  artificial  divisions. 

Its  steady  progress  through  human  vicissitudes  and  adverse 
influences. 

Yarious  popular,  professional,  and  philosophical  prejudices, 
which  now  hinder  the  unity  and  growth  of  the  sciences  :  their 
source  and  remedy. 

Yarious  intellectual  and  moral  qualifications  for  pursuing  the 
sciences  demanded  by  their  present  state. 

Conditions  and  resources  of  a  science  of  the  sciences. 

2.  SURVEY  OF  THE  SCIENCES. 

German,  French,  and  English  classifications  or  systems  of  the 
sciences  :  their  merits  and  defects. 

Principles  of  the  true  system :  1st.  That  they  should  be  ar- 
ranged according  to  the  actual  order  of  phenomena,  the  terres- 
trial being  associated  with  the  celestial,  and  the  material  preced- 
ing the  moral.  2d.  That  they  should  be  divided  by  the  modes  or 
kinds  of  cognition  :  in  each  of  them  the  inductive  being  distin- 
guished from  the  intuitive,  or  the  rational  from  the  revealed  ;  as 
follows : — 

Physical  Sciences. 

Mechanics,  or  science  of  inorganic  matter. 
Chemistry,  or  science  of  organic  matter. 
Biology,  or  science  of  vital  matter. 

Psychical  Sciences. 

Psychology,  or  science  of  individual  mind. 
Sociology,  or  science  of  associate  mind. 
Theology,  or  science  of  infinite  mind. 

Each  of  the  series  being  as  to  its  field  of  cognition,  both  celes- 
tial and  terrestrial,  and  as  to  its  mode  of  cognition,  both  induc- 
tive and  intuitive,  though  in  unequal  portions  and  degrees. 

Characteristics  of  material  as  distinguished  from  moral  science. 


PniLOSOPIIIA   ULTIMA.  91 

Characteristics  of  inductive  as  distinguished  from  intuitive 
science. 

Relative  advancement  of  the  sciences. 

Brief  summary  of  tlieir  results  :  in  the  expansion  of  the  intel- 
lect, in  the  accumulation  of  truth,  and  in  new  accessions  of  human 
power,  dignity,  and  hajipiness. 

Their  need  and  readiness  for  some  logical  organization  and 
more  systematic  culture. 

8.  THEORY  OF  THE  SCIENCES,  OR  DOCTRINE  OF  COGNITION. 

(1)  Of  the  cognitive,  or  the  means  of  cognition. 

False  theories,  which  would  reject  either  reason  or  revelation, 
or  would  derange  their  normal  relations. 

The  true  theory,  that  of  their  gradual  coincidence  and  ultimate 
harmony. 

Foundation  for  this  theory  in  both  the  nature  and  the  history 
of  the  human  intellect. 

Its  accuracy  and  fitness. 

(2)  Of  the  cognizable,  or  the  material  of  cognition. 

False  theories,  which  would  ignore  celestial  or  spiritual  phe- 
nomena as  inaccessible  or  imaginary. 

The  true  theory,  that  which  would  be  cognizant  of  both  in  their 
actual  coexistences  and  successions,  and  claim  as  the  ideal  domain 
of  science  the  whole  aggregate  of  worlds  throughout  all  ages. 

Foundation  for  this  theory  in  both  the  structure  and  the  devel- 
opment of  the  universe. 

Its  completeness  and  grandeur. 

(3)  Of  the  cognitive  in  action  upon  the  cognizable,  or  the 
process  of  cognition. 

False  theories,  which  would  cither  confine  reason  to  terrestrial 
and  material  phenomena,  or  confine  revelation  to  spiritual  and 
celestial  phenomena. 

The  true  theory,  that  which  would  combine  both  modes  of  cog- 
nition in  all  fields  of  cognition  as  involving  a  joint  process  of 


92  PHILOSOPHIA   ULTIMA. 

finite  and  infinite  intelligence  throngliout  immensity  and  eternity, 
toward  the  goal  of  omniscience. 

Foundation  for  this  tlieory  in  the  relations  of  finite  and  Infinite 
mind,  and  in  the  history  of  the  human  sciences. 

Procession  of  the  sciences  in  correspondence  with  the  proces- 
sion of  phenomena,  as  involving  an  endless  review  of. the  crea- 
tion, by  the  creature,  for  the  glory  of  the  Creator. 

Ideal  perfectibility  of  knowledge  as  contrasted  with  its  actual 
imperfection. 

Means  and  motives  for  ever  striving  after  perfect  knowledge. 

PART  II.— ART  OF  THE  SCIENCES. 

Need  of  precepts  for  pursuing  and  perfecting  the  sciences. 
Preliminary  work  of  a  logical  partition  of  the  sciences,  with  a 
view  to  their  systematic  culture. 

1.  Axioms  of  Nomology,  or  organon  of  inductive  science. 

2.  Axioms  of  JEtiology,  or         "       of  intuitive         " 

3.  Axioms  of  Ontology,  or         "       of  omniscience. 

The  ideal  of  a  full  equipment  of  the  sciences  for  their  work  of 
endless  progression  toward  perfect  knowledge. 
Prospect  of  its  realization. 

PART  III.—SCIENCE  OF  THE  ARTS. 

Practical  issue  of  the  sciences  in  their  correspondent  arts. 

This  growth  of  the  arts  out  of  the  sciences,  from  having  been 
spontaneous  and  irregular,  may  become  more  and  more  logical 
and  systematic. 

Logical  partition  of  the  arts  to  be  adjusted  to  that  of  the  sci- 
ences. 

1.  Science  of  the  Material  Arts,  or  principles  which  regu- 
late the  rational  control  of  man  over  mechanical  and  chemical 
phenomena  in  both  the  terrestrial  and  celestial  spheres  of  action. 

2.  Science  of  the  Moral  Arts,  or  principles  which  regulate 


PIIILOSOPniA   ULTIMA.  93 

the  rational  control  of  man  over  individual  and  social  phenomena 
in  both  the  terrestrial  and  cck'sdul  sj)heres  of  action. 

3.  Science  op  the  Reliuious  Arts,  or  principles  which  regu- 
late the  rational  control  of  man,  in  co-operation  with  God,  over 
both  material  and  spiritual  phenomena. 

Procession  of  the  arts  from  and  witli  the  sciences  as  involviiif^ 
the  progressive  dominion  of  the  creature  over  tlie  creation,  and 
his  participation  in  the  glory  of  the  Creator. 

Ideal  perfectibility  of  the  arts  as  contrasted  with  their  actual 
imperfection. 

Consummation  of  the  ultimate  philosophy  in  three  grand  issues 
of  human  history  : 

(1)  The  ultimate  system  of  sciences. 

(2)  The  ultimate  system  of  arts. 

(3)  The  ultimate  system  of  society. 

Means  and  motives  for  ever  striving  after  this  great  consumma- 
tion. 

Inauguration  of  the  ultimate  philosophy : 
The  time,  the  present  age. 
■    The  scene,  the  Western  Hemisphere. 
The  mode,  the  academic  curriculum. 
Scheme  of  academic  study  for  its  inauguration,  based  upon  the 
foregoing  project,  and  arranged  with  reference  to  the  existing  and 
prospective  state  of  the  sciences,  as  follows : — 

I.  RATIONAL  AND  REVEALED  ASTRONOMY. 

Illustration  by  celestial  mechanics  of  the  Divine  omnipotence, 
omnipresence,  eternity,  and  immutability. 

Antagonistic  theories  of  cumulative  forces  and  of  successive 
creations  in  their  bearing  upon  the  Scripture  doctrine  of  the 
origin  and  destiny  of  the  material  universe. 

Astronomical  miracles  of  Divine  art. 

Astronomical  marvels  of  human  art. 


94  PHILOSOPIIIA   ULTIMA. 

The  millennium  of  mechanics,  or  of  the  mechanical  arts,  both 
celestial  and  terrestrial. 

II.  RATIONAL  AND  REVEALED  GEOLOGY. 

Illustration  by  terrestrial  chemistry  of  the  Divine  wisdom  and 
goodness. 

Antagonistic  theories  of  the  Catastrophists  and  TJniformita- 
rians  in  their  bearing  upon  the  Scripture  doctrine  of  the  genesis 
and  renovation  of  the  earth. 

Cosmical  miracles  of  Divine  art. 

Cosmical  marvels  of  human  art. 

The  millennium  of  chemistry,  or  of  the  cosmical  arts,  both  ter- 
restrial and  celestial. 

III.  RATIONAL  AND  REVEALED  ANTHROPOLOGY. 

Cumulative  illustration  by  terrestrial  biology  of  the  physical 
attributes  of  the  Creator.  The  recapitulation  of  the  whole  plan- 
etary organism  in  man  as  the  flower  and  head  of  nature. 

Antagonistic  theories  of  the  Monogenists  and  Polygenists  in 
their  bearing  upon  the  Scripture  doctrine  of  the  First  and  Second 
Adam. 

Corporeal  miracles  of  Divine  art. 

Corporeal  marvels  of  human  art. 

The  millennium  of  biology,  or  of  the  physical  arts,  both  ter- 
restrial and  celestial. 

IV.  RATIONAL   AND  REVEALED   PSYCHOLOGY. 

Illustration  by  terrestrial  psychology  of  the  Divine  justice  and 
mercy. 

Antagonistic  theories  of  the  Libertarians  and  Necessarians  in 
their  bearing  upon  the  Scripture  doctrine  of  the  depravity  and 
regeneration  of  the  soul. 

Antagonistic  theories  of  the  Spiritualists  and  Materialists  in 


PIIILOSOrillA    ULTIMA.  95 

their  bearinc:  upon  tlio  Si'riptiiro  aocti'ine  of  the  proseiil  and 
future  relations  of  soul  and  hody. 

Antagonistic  theories  of  the  Naturalists  and  Supcrnaturalists 
in  their  bearing  upon  the  Scripture  doctrine  of  satanic  and  an- 
gelic influence. 

Psychical  miracles  of  Divine  art. 

Psychical  marvels  of  human  art. 

The  millennium  of  psychology,  or  of  the  psychical  arts,  both 
terrestrial  and  celestial. 

V.  RATIONAL   AND   REVEALKD   SOCIOLOGY. 

Cumulative  illustration  by  terrestrial  sociology  of  the  moral 
attributes  of  Providence. 

Antagonistic  theories  of  Divine  economies  and  human  progress 
in  their  bearing  upon  the  Scripture  doctrine  of  the  apostacy  and 
the  millennium. 

Antagonistic  theories  as  to  the  relation  of  the  temporal  to  the 
eternal,  or  of  the  spiritual  to  the  material,  in  their  bearing  upon 
the  Scripture  doctrine  of  church  and  state. 

Antagonistic  theories  as  to  the  inhabitation  of  the  planets 
in  their  bearing  upon  the  Scripture  doctrine  of  the  kingdom  of 
the  heavens,  and  the  commerce  of  earthly  and  heavenly  races. 

Millennium  of  sociology,  or  of  the  political  arts,  both  terres- 
trial and  celestial. 

VL  RATIONAL  AND  REVEALED  THEOLOGY. 

Climacteric  illustration  by  terrestrial  theology  of  all  Divine 
perfections.  The  recapitulation  of  the  whole  material  and  spir- 
itual organism  in  the  Second  Adam,  the  Son  of  God  and  the  Son 
of  man. 

Antagonistic  theories  as  to  the  Infinite  or  the  Absolute  in  their 
bearing  upon  the  Scripture  doctrine  of  the  Being  of  God. 

Antap-onistic  theories  of  the  Monotheists  and  Pantheists  in 


96  PHILOSOPniA   ULTIMA. 

their  bearing  upon  tlie  Scripture  doctrine  of  creation  and  re- 
demption. 

Antagonistic  theories  as  to  the  relation  of  the  finite  to  the 
Infinite  Spirit  in  their  bearing  upon  the  Scripture  doctrine  of  the 
destiny  of  the  creature. 

The  millennium  of  theology,  or  of  the  religious  arts,  both  ter- 
restrial and  celestial. 

The  general  millennium  of  terrestrial  sciences  and  arts,  both 
material  and  spiritual,  as  involving  a  union  of  the  human  with 
the  Divine  mind  and  will  in  the  knowledge  and  control  of  all  ter- 
restrial phenomena. 

The  universal  millennium  of  celestial  sciences  and  arts,  both 
spiritual  and  material,  as  involving  the  endless  return,  through  all 
worlds  and  ages,  of  the  finite  into  the  Infinite  Reason  and  effort 
after  the  one  perfect  religion  or  relUjature  of  the  creature  to  the 
Creator,  through  and  by  means  of  the  creation. 

Aims  of  such  a  course  of  studies  :  1st.  To  preserve  through- 
out the  scale  of  the  sciences  the  vital  connection  of  the  terrestrial 
with  the  celestial  material  of  cognition,  and  the  logical  distinc- 
tion between  the  empirical  and  intuitional  modes  of  cognition. 
2d.  To  combine  in  each  science  all  that  is  established  as  discov- 
ered with  all  that  is  established  as  revealed,  and  as  to  all  that  is 
still  theoretical  and  doctrinal,  to  show  the  problem  of  opinion. 
3d.  To  connect  logically  the  ascertained  portions  of  one  science 
with  those  of  another,  and  problematically  their  theoretical  por- 
tions. 4th.  To  display  with  the  series  of  the  sciences  their  corre- 
sponding series  of  arts  as  ever  tending  to  enhance  the  Divine 
glory  and  human  welfare.  And  lastly,  to  organize,  by  this  means, 
that  proximate  system  of  sciences,  arts,  and  societies  upon  which 
to  project,  in  endless  perspective,  the  ultimate  system. 


A* 


